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The Child Life team at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center provides coping support for children and families facing stressful health care situations.

When your child needs care or a medical procedure at the hospital, child life specialists provide support and advocate for your child’s developmental and emotional needs.

Child life specialists partner with your family and your child’s entire care team to ease your family’s way.

Child life specialists are experts in the developmental and psychological impact of illness and injury on children. Each specialist earns a bachelor’s degree at minimum in child development or another closely related field and maintains a nationally accredited certification.

At Providence, our child life team helps children and families cope with health care experiences that can be stressful. Services we offer for children include:

  • Addressing when a child has difficulty cooperating with medicine or treatments
  • Calming a child who is significantly distressed or fearful
  • Coping with and preparing for medical procedures, surgery or tests
  • Facilitating a visit with a family member who is in the hospital and providing support before and after the visit
  • Helping a child use non-medicinal pain management techniques
  • Offering age-appropriate play or therapeutic activities
  • Support for a child and their family after a new diagnosis, injury or illness
  • Support for any child dealing with the death of a loved one

The Child Life Internship Program at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center offers a comprehensive, 600 hour Child Life internship program open to college or university-affiliated students seeking certification as a Child Life Specialist.

Students are offered extensive and varied opportunities to meet the standards set forth by the Certifying Committee of the ACLP (Association of Child Life Professionals). Internships at PSVMC are offered to one student per term in Fall and Spring. We follow the ACLP internship curriculum and recommended deadlines for application submissions.

Our program accepts the Internship Readiness Common Application found on the ACLP website: ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application.

Once complete, submit applications for review to orpsvclsinternship@providence.org

The email subject line should state the internship session (Fall or Spring) and year.

The PDF downloaded as part of the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application is the only component that will be reviewed. No additional documentation will be required or reviewed for a candidate’s initial submission (no letters of recommendation, cover letters, resumes, etc.).

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Providence Children's Health of Oregon

A Leader in Caring for Kids – Serving Tens of Thousands of Children in Oregon Each Year.

At Providence Children’s Health, we understand children’s bodies and minds react differently than adults to injury, illness, medications and therapy. Our compassionate teams do everything they can to give your child the best possible experience. We offer everything from routine primary care to emergency and hospital care – for newborns, children and teens.

Get Care From Providence Children's Health of Oregon

Referring Physicians

We value our network of referring physicians and make every effort to partner with providers and tailor treatment for each patient. Learn more about provider resources.

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Circle® is a free pregnancy and parenting app that provides useful health resources, top-notch pregnancy calculator and tools to help track ovulation, weight, blood pressure, and vaccinations. Enjoy easy access to program information, services and classes, too! Plus, when you connect to MyChart through Circle, you'll receive appointment reminders for you and your children. Learn more about the Circle app.

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