Child Life Internship

We will not offer a child life internship in fall 2025. Please check back for updates regarding future semesters. For any questions, please email childlifeinternship@christushealth.org

Program Information

CHRISTUS Children's Child Life Department is proud to be an accredited Child Life Internship site by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP). 

The Southern Association of Child Life Professionals (SACLP) offers a child life student internship scholarship. Information can be found here: Southern Association of Child Life Professionals (saclp.org) 

The Child Life Department at CHRISTUS Children's offers a 15-week/600 hour clinical accredited child life internship designed to give the intern maximum experience in the hospital setting. The first week is an orientation to our hospital and the Child Life Department. We will also review ACLP internship curriculum modules and complete all necessary onboarding requirements. The remaining weeks are divided into clinical rotations giving the intern experience with all ages of children from infants to adolescents. One week will be designated for site visits to other child life programs, community resources and benevolent organizations that compliment child life services. Child life interns will also be exposed to a variety of medical settings and experiences designed to strengthen each intern's skill set.

Interns work in various inpatient and outpatient settings gaining experience in the following skill sets:

  • Building rapport with patients and families,
  • Utilizing growth, development and family systems theories for assessment and intervention planning,
  • Planning and facilitating developmentally appropriate play activities for hospitalized children both in playrooms/group activities and individual sessions,
  • Providing child life therapeutic interventions,
  • Participating in preparation for and support during procedures and treatments,
  • Conducting medical play sessions,
  • Conducting assessments, developmental observations and other assignments, all under the supervision of Certified Child Life Specialists.

Our internship provides two clinical rotations along with roundtable learning experiences weekly, reading assignments, weekly journals, article reviews, and project work. Interns will have weekly meetings with their preceptor and the internship coordinators. Intern applicants should expect to work 40 hours a week with additional reading and project work to be done aside from assigned hospital hours. The internship is fully aligned with ACLP and utilizes the ACLP curriculum modules as the base of the intern's learning experience.

Required readings prior to the internship (these can be purchased thru ACLP):

  1. Gaynard, L., Wolfer, J., Goldberger, J., Thompson, R., Redburn, L., and Laidley, L. (1990). Psychosocial Care of Children in Hospitals: A Clinical Practice Manual. Bethesda, MD: Association for the Care of Children's Health.
  2. Bolig, Rosemary., Mahan, Carmel., Rollins, Judy. (2018). Meeting Children's Psychosocial Needs Across the Health-Care Continuum, Pro-ed, Austin, TX
  3. Thompson, Richard. (2018). The Handbook of Child Life, A Guide for Pediatric Psychosocial Care, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. Springfield, IL

*Additional required readings from ACLP curriculum modules will be provided during the internship.

CHRISTUS Children's Child Life Internship Program currently accepts university-affiliated students and non-affiliated/independent students. Currently, our child life program has affiliations with several universities. However, if your university does not have an affiliation with our hospital, our corporate legal team and your university’s legal team will have to facilitate a contract. This is a time sensitive issue and it may not be completed by the internship start date. If you have questions regarding your university’s affiliation, please email childlifeinternship@christushealth.org.

Interns not affiliated with a university are required to obtain liability insurance prior to the start of the internship at your own cost. Information on how to obtain liability insurance will be provided prior to start date if needed. University-affiliated interns will need to provide proof of liability insurance through their academic institution. Interns must provide proof of immunizations, COVID-19 vaccine and TB test results prior to start date. Interns will be responsible for obtaining a flu shot per hospital infection prevention guidelines.

Requirements to Apply

  1. Applicants must be pursuing or have completed a master’s degree or a bachelor's degree in child life, child development, or a related field.
  2. Applicants must complete the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application. It can be found here: Application Portal
  3. Steps to complete the application include: 
    1. Candidates provide demographic information as well as academic affiliation and degree information
    2. Candidates can describe up to six relevant experiences. Please see #4 below for updated practicum requirement.
    3. Candidates can demonstrate KSAs and depth of interactions with children and families in five written responses
    4. Upload Unofficial Transcripts
    5. Upload Eligibility Assessment
  4. CHRISTUS Children’s additional requirement – applicants must have completed a child life practicum/practicum under a child life specialist OR have 100 hours completed by the time the application is due. This should be noted in your application under the experience section in the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application.

Once all tasks are complete, applicants can download the application or submit it to our email inbox at childlifeinternship@christushealth.org.

 

CHRISTUS Children’s Child Life Internship Program accepts the first 70 completed applications that are received each application cycle. We will begin receiving applications 6 weeks prior to the fall and spring application deadlines. The dates are noted below:

  • Fall application acceptance window begins February 5 for a March 15 deadline.
  • Spring internship application acceptance window begins July 29 for a September 5 deadline.

Completed applications would have require the following components:

  • ACLP New Common Internship Readiness Application
  • ACLP Eligibility Assessment
  • Unofficial academic transcript(s) verifying course/program required by the ACLP Eligibility Assessment

We will close the application acceptance pool once we have reached 70 completed applications or at the ACLP deadline for each application cycle, whichever comes first. You will be notified by an automatic reply from the email inbox childlifeinternship@christushealth.org if your application is received and accepted, or if we have reached our capacity of applications.



Application Checklist

*Please note we are staying fully aligned with ACLP at this time and not requesting anything additional outside of the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application. We appreciate your patience as we navigate changes in the application process. Please email us at childlifeinternship@christushealth.org with any questions you may have throughout the internship application process*

Please return completed application packet with the following included:

Applications must be completed with the application on one continuous word document or continuous PDF form by ACLP deadlines and emailed to: childlifeinternship@christushealth.org.

Application Review and Interview Information

The internship committee will review all applications after the application deadline has passed. We use a review process that includes a scoring matrix in each step of the application and interview process. We will then:

  1. Identify our initial candidate pool from the applications and conduct a brief phone interview.
  2. Extend offers and conduct final interviews using the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI format). Specific details regarding the MMI format will be communicated to candidates via email prior to the final interview.
  3. Final interviews are typically held one to two weeks prior to the initial offer date.
    1. Interview dates will be pre-selected each semester and communicated to the candidates.
    2. All final interviews will be conducted using Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
    3. Applicants selected for the final interview will be asked to provide our interview team with a current resume. This request will be communicated to candidates with a timeline for submission prior to the final interview.

Please contact the Child Life Internship Coordinator via email at childlifeinternship@christushealth.org with any questions you may have concerning the application process or the internship program. We wish you well on your journey to become a Child Life Specialist!