February 2026 FCC Community Exchange
Thank you to the 185 members who joined us for this month’s FCC Community Exchange session! A huge thank you to Annie Jacobson, MS, CCLS, CAHP who shared practical ways to implement and integrate Child Life Services in the NICU to improve family-centered care practices. Check out our recording of her mini-presentation and click here to view slides.
Highlights:
- Child Life Specialists can clean a trach after baby’s first trach change and place it in a stuffed animal for families to share with siblings
- Child Life Specialists can create an ‘all about me’ sheet for siblings with baby’s photo and any medical equipment they’re using with age-appropriate descriptions
- When thinking about medical play, it’s important for folks to know this is a therapeutic intervention led exclusively by a Certified Child Life Specialist. If your hospital is looking to purchase supplies, that’s wonderful! But, they need to be utilized by a CCLS (who may also be able to model for parents how to continue a version of the play at home) to get the evidence-based, therapeutic outcomes.
Resources Shared:
- Answering Your Child‘s Questions About a Sibling in the NICU, Article by Hand to Hold
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The Butterfly Pig, Medical Play Tools
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Child Life Services, Policy Statement by American Academy of Pediatrics
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Child Life Value Proposition Statement, Association of Child Life Professionals
- CODE CLIO (Child Life Isn’t Optional) on Instagram
- Code CLIO (Child Life Isn’t Optional) Podcast
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Inside the Children’s Hospital, Podcast for Parents & Caregivers
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The iRainbow: A Flexible, Evidence-Based Care Path for Providing Developmental Care in the NICU, FCC Taskforce Webinar
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Sibling experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit: An integrative review, Article
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Sibling visits and viral infection in the neonatal intensive care unit, Article
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Standards for Levels of Neonatal Care: II, III, and IV, American Academy of Pediatrics