Child Life Practicum

Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt is a nationally recognized provider of pediatric health care services. We are the only pediatric hospital in Tennessee ranked in 10 pediatric specialty programs in U.S. News & World Report’s "Best Children’s Hospitals."

We established our Child Life Program in 1969. It began as a one-person, purely recreational program, and has grown to a large and varied child life staff.

Our Child Life Practicum Program strives to provide well-rounded learning opportunity for students studying to become a Certified Child Life Specialist. Our practicum offers one or two clinical rotations directly supervised by Certified Child Life Specialists. Practicum experiences are designed with individual student learning and scheduling needs in mind, providing a minimum of 100 hours over the course of four to six weeks. Student reflection and learning are enhanced by direct supervision and weekly assignments, which include reflective journals and scholarly article reviews. Therapeutic play activities are also included in the practicum experience to support the translation of knowledge to child life practice.

Our team has provided learning experience for child life students since 1980. We continually evaluate our programming to ensure a comprehensive and outstanding experience. Our department’s educational opportunities work to support VUMC's overall mission: personalizing the patient experience through our caring spirit and distinctive capabilities.