Date of Last Revision

2023-05-02 20:05:27

Major

Child Life Specialist

Date of Expected Graduation

Summer 2016

Abstract

Many medical professionals and students around the world are unaware of the role of child life specialists. This study was done to enhance the awareness of the role and to determine whether there were cultural differences in current knowledge about child life specialists in the U.S. compared to Haiti. Scores on a child life specialist knowledge test were compared among nursing students across the two cultures. Additionally, a teaching intervention was conducted with the Haitian nursing students aimed at improving knowledge about the profession. Thirty-three Haitian students and 42 U.S. students participated in this study. The results indicated that nursing students in the U.S. had significantly greater knowledge of child life specialists than nursing students in Haiti. Further, the teaching intervention in Haiti had a negative effect on the post-test scores for Haitian students. There were several limitations of this study, such as limited survey instrument with only 5 questions due to time and translation constraints. Overall, this study suggests that regardless of teaching interventions, both groups knew something about child life. Future research should explore different methods of teaching about child life specialists that are effective at improving knowledge.

Research Sponsor

Jennifer Stanley

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