Hiring

Once you have a position funded, how do you find great candidates for this position that might never have existed before at your hospital. How to you onboard them and make sure they mesh well with your existing Child life team.

Job Descriptions

What to think about when crafting a job description.

Examples

Interviewing

Things to keep in mind when interviewing for these new positions

• They should self-identify as a life-long gamer with broad interest in all kinds of games
• This person should have a robust enough gaming knowledge to make healthy recommendations to staff and be a guide to families about all kinds of games.  
• This person should be effusive in sharing their passion for gaming with the rest of your staff.  
• If they give you a story about making friends through online games - this is a small red flag. Not a deal-breaker, but this person needs to be strongly inclined toward face-to-face interaction and should have some stories along those lines. Make sure they don't only have online relationships.
• Needs strong experience working with children\teens in some form, ideally in a setting where they are also interacting regularly with parents/guardians.
• Ideally this person will have experience designing curriculum, activities, clubs, or some kind of youth program that they have taken initiative to create which demonstrates that they will be comfortable building out a larger program over time.
• Many candidates for these roles have no experience in healthcare. See if you can ask them about how they deal with stress or tough personal situations. Do they have coping tools in place for the strong emotions that come with Pediatric care?

Sample Interview Questions

• Tell us about how you have worked with kids and technology?
• What experience do you have with VR\AR?
• Can you describe an experience you have had working with a child in distress?
• What experience have you had in a hospital clinical environment?
• What are some games you have played in the last month?
• Describe any roles where you were the primary tech support person for a group.
• What gaming events have they attended?
• What kinds of non-digital games do they play?
• Tell us about a time games helped you connect with a new friend, student or group of friends.
• How or where do you find creativity in your life? Where do you apply it?

Orientation

New employee just started, how do you onboard them?

• Your hospital standard onboarding process
• Have them shadow a couple Child Life staff in different areas so they get a good understanding of that role
• If they are new to healthcare, treat them like an intern or a student covering whatever topics you would cover with them.
• Make sure they are able to connect with other Patient Gaming & technology Specialists. These are their peers and will be able to help them with questions you can't.