Skip to main content

Child Life Specialist Certified

Apply
Location Wilkes-Barre, PA Job Category Wellbeing Services Schedule Days Work Type Full time Department Child Life Division Date posted 10/17/2025 Job ID R-85384

Job Summary

$5,000 sign on bonus for eligible applicants! As a member of the Child Life Team, plans, develops, and provides Child Life programming for a given clinical area to best meet the psychosocial, emotional, and developmental needs of pediatric patients and their families. Using age-appropriate play, CCLS considers the issues children face in health care settings and assesses patient needs for: normal growth and development, education, preparation, medical play, coping strategies or other issues to help them in their mastery of the environment. CCLS is responsible for providing child life interventions to a specific patient population within the policies and procedures of Geisinger. All meet the required qualifications, as outlined by the nationally known Association of Child Life Professionals to provide care for patients in the assigned pediatric clinical areas or other patient care areas, as needed. Required to maintain professional certification through continuing education opportunities.

Job Duties

  • Clinical Responsibilities Evaluates child's developmental stage, ability to understand and cope with the health care environment, temperament and emotional state.
  • Develops a strategic plan to reduce the fear and anxiety a child experiences with the health care environment.
  • Implements specialized services to best meet the individual child's needs including: medical play, preparation for procedures, operations or other medical events, teaching and implementing coping strategies, providing education about disease process and treatment to both the child and their family.
  • Identifies patient and family coping strategies in daily routine and applies these strategies to assist patients and their families in coping with the stress of hospitalization, illness, death, and loss.
  • Educates patient, family, and staff to other techniques to aid a child in coping and insures technique is age appropriate for the development, and emotional state of the child.
  • Assists in the implementation of such techniques, monitors its effectiveness and alters the plan as necessary.
  • Responsible for leading the child, staff and family through coping strategies during medical procedures.
  • Educates and prepares patients and their families for medical procedures, disease processes and mastery of the healthcare environment using appropriate and therapeutic play activities as treatment tools.
  • Interprets and communicates patient's perception of diagnosis and treatment as revealed through play and other means of communication, both verbal and nonverbal, to staff and family.
  • Integrates Child Life services by providing consultation to other health care workers regarding developmental and behavioral issues which impact on patient care.
  • Creates, implements and orients other health care staff to age appropriate behavior reward methods to promote a patient's adaptation to treatment and encourage patient cooperation.
  • Creates and distributes resources about child health and safety in general as needed.
  • Assures therapeutic and safe environments for individual and group play.
  • Selects, purchases and maintains the safety and cleanliness of toys, games, and other equipment used in the play areas to comply with departmental infection control policies and procedures.
  • Documents Child Life interventions in the patient's medical record in accordance with Geisinger policies and procedures.
  • Participates in record keeping of vital statistics for the Child Life Department demonstrating which Child Life services have been provided to patients.
  • Educates, and acts as resource for, health care professionals regarding the psychosocial issues of pediatric health care, and the impact of illness, injury, and hospitalization on patients and their families.
  • Develops and schedules in-services as needed for multidisciplinary team members and community groups.
  • Interviews, orients, coordinates, schedules and supervises Child Life volunteers in their daily work with patients in all patient care areas.


Work is typically performed in a clinical environment. Accountable for satisfying all job specific obligations and complying with all organization policies and procedures. The specific statements in this profile are not intended to be all-inclusive. They represent typical elements considered necessary to successfully perform the job. Additional competencies and skills outlined in any department-specific orientation will be considered essential to the performance of the job related to that position.

Position Details

Join our team and receive up to a $5,000 joining bonus, plus, relocation assistance for qualified candidates.

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Internship Requirement:
    Completion of a Child Life Internship (minimum 600 hours) under the direct supervision of a Certified Child Life Specialist.

  • Education:
    Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, Education, Psychology, or a related field.

  • Certification Eligibility:
    Must meet the requirements to be eligible for professional certification by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP).

  • Career Ladder Opportunities

  • Membership to The Association of Child Life Professional and Certification Annual maintenance fees provided by Department.

  • As a part of a teaching institution, this department provides and ACLP accredited internship and supervises practicum students.

Benefits of working at Geisinger: 

  • Full benefits (health, dental and vision) starting on day one 

  • Three medical plan choices, including an expanded network for out-of-area employees and dependents  

  • Pre-tax savings plans with healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSA) and a health savings account (HSA)  

  • Company-paid life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability coverage  

  • 401(k) plan that includes automatic Geisinger contributions  

  • Generous paid time off (PTO) plan that allows you to accrue time quickly  

  • Up to $5,000 in tuition reimbursement per calendar year  

  • MyHealth Rewards wellness program to improve your health while earning a financial incentive  

  • Family-friendly support including adoption and fertility assistance, parental leave pay, military leave pay and a free Care.com membership with discounted backup care for your loved ones  

  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Referrals for childcare, eldercare, & pet care. Access free legal guidance, mental health visits, work-life support, digital self-help tools and more.  

  • Voluntary benefits including accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity insurance, identity theft protection, universal life and pet and legal insurance 

Education

Bachelor's Degree-Child Development (Required)

Experience

Minimum of 1 year-Related work experience (Preferred)

Certification(s) and License(s)

Certified Child Life Specialist - Association of Child Life Professional; Pediatric Advanced Life Support Certification - American Heart Association (AHA)

Skills

Teamwork; Multitasking; Communication; Organizing

About Geisinger

Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes ten hospital campuses, a 550,000-member health plan, two research centers and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. With nearly 24,000 employees and more than 1,700 employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania by billions of dollars annually. Learn more at geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Our Vision & Values

Everything we do is about making better health easier for our patients, our members, our students, our Geisinger family and our communities.

KINDNESS: We strive to treat everyone as we would hope to be treated ourselves.

EXCELLENCE: We treasure colleagues who humbly strive for excellence.

LEARNING: We share our knowledge with the best and brightest to better prepare the caregivers for tomorrow.

INNOVATION: We constantly seek new and better ways to care for our patients, our members, our community, and the nation.

SAFETY: We provide a safe environment for our patients and members and the Geisinger family.

Our Benefits

We offer healthcare benefits for full time and part time positions from day one, including vision, dental and prescription coverage.

Apply

Recently viewed jobs

No previously viewed jobs

Related jobs

Jillian Schaeffer

“I’ve been surprised by the community our floor has even though we can all work different days and different shifts. We celebrate successes and life events for employees and patients — that’s what makes it a fun place to work!”

Jillian Schaeffer

Nurse Assistant

A place where you can lead a healthy lifestyle and follow your dreams.

Only at Geisinger.

Best employer for healthy lifestyles   – National Business Group

Access to 121 state parks

Sign up for job alerts

Sign up below to receive job alerts and communications about career opportunities with Geisinger.

Interested InSearch location and/or categories of interest below and click "Add".

Our Terms of Use explain how we collect and use information about you and the rights you have. By submitting your information you acknowledge you have read those documents and consent to receive SMS communications and email job alerts from Geisinger.

Returning Users