P2.166: Child Life in the Adult Emergency Department

Purpose/Objectives: Certified Child Life Specialists provide important psychosocial support for pediatric patients. Emergency medicine residents often train in adult emergency departments where they may not be exposed to Child Life resources. Our adult emergency department frequently sees pediatric patients, yet many residents report discomfort treating children in an emergency department standardized for adults. Informal discussions revealed that many residents at our program were not aware that Child Life resources are available in our adult emergency department. To address this gap, a quality improvement educational initiative was developed to introduce our residents to Child Life resources.

Design/Methods: Certified Child Life Specialists prepared and presented a lecture during resident didactics, covering topics such as the role of Child Life Specialists and their methods, how to contact the team, and how to access Child Life resources. Residents completed a pre-survey evaluating their knowledge of Child Life availability in the adult emergency department and their confidence in performing pediatric patient care tasks, such as using comfort measures during procedures and involving patients’ families during procedures and care. Confidence was ranked on a scale from “not at all confident” to “extremely confident.” After the lecture, residents completed a post-survey to assess the lecture’s effectiveness in improving resident knowledge of the tenets of Child Life.

Results: Fifteen residents completed the pre-survey, and twelve residents completed the post-survey. 73% of residents responded that they were not aware that Child Life was available for consultation in our adult emergency department. In the post-survey, 92% responded that they understood how to consult Child Life, and 100% reported they would consider consulting the team in the future. In the pre-survey questions regarding procedures, 60% of residents reported they were “not at all confident” or “slightly confident” in using comfort measures during procedures and 40% reported they were “not at all confident” or “slightly confident” involving family during procedures and care. In the post-survey, 91.7% reported they were “moderately confident” or “very confident” in using comfort measures and 100% reported they were “moderately confident” or “very confident” in involving family.

Conclusion/Discussion: Educating emergency medicine residents on Child Life Specialist roles, Child Life methods and resources, and their integration into pediatric patient care in adult emergency departments improves residents’ confidence in caring for pediatric patients and enhances the multidisciplinary patient-centered care provided to children and their families in these settings.