Kat 103.7 Radiothon for Children's Nebraska: Kylie Keller - Child Life Specialist

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
As a Charlie specialist, we like to help kiddos cope
through the hospital experience. The hospital can be scary and
unknown for adults, let alone a kid is a whole
other level, and so we want to make them as
comfortable as possible with the healthcare tasks. So, whether that's
explaining a new diagnosis to them, whether that's prepping them
before a procedure scan, we want the kids to have

(00:21):
an understanding of what's going on in a way that
they'll understand what.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Drew into this line of work.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, that's a good question. I actually have a background
of being a cancer survivor myself, and so I always
knew when I was little that I wanted to be
in the healthcare. I just didn't know what that looked like.
And so I found out about childlife when I got older,
and I was like, that's it, That's what I want
to do. It brings up a lot of emotions because
I've been there. I've been in those moments of the

(00:46):
before diagnosis and diagnosis in post and now I'm here
years later, and so I think it just gets emotional
with somebody.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Who wants to go into this line of worked to
be a childlife specialist, just somebody along that line. What
do they have to want that they have to have
inside them?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, you have to be able to meet people in
their hardest of moments. So I think that desire to
help as well as to love people in a way
that you're meeting them in their hardest of moments and
emotionally be able to handle that at the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Last question, tell us about your relationship with Freedo.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So, Freedo is a facility doc because she works here
at Children's Nebraska. There's facility dogs all over the country
working with different professionals, and so actually Fredo has eight
siblings and they're all working in this line of work,
which is amazing. But yeah, Freda's a facility dog. So
she is a tool that I get to use in
my job, which is amazing. Here she is right now
coming to say hello, I have Freedo. But yeah, she

(01:44):
is an amazing tool I get to use. There's only
two child A specialists and within children that has a
facility dog working with them, and so we get to
utilize our dogs as a tool. So Freedo, I get
to do medical play on her to show kids before
we do some thing we're showing on Fredo. Freedo can
do the CT scan, which is kind of random, but
it's just a fun way to show through prep books

(02:06):
or in person how Freedo can help kiddos in the
hardest of situations.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
That's just one of the things really that makes children different,
isn't it. I Mean, a child could go get care
at many hospitals, but they don't have the things that
make children special for children like this.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's truly an amazing program. And yeah, currently right
now we're the only one in the state that has
facility dogs and so usually most states have like one
or two programs that have dogs like this, and so
it is amazing that Children's Nebraska dedicates this. And without
donors and support, we wouldn't be able to have our program.
Because our program is fully donor funded.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
There's a good reason to call.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yes, it's an amazing reason. You don't realize how much
a dog impacts healthcare until you actually witness in the
most moments where we walk through the door and instant
smile for my kiddo that was just screaming because they
were in so much pain. And so yeah, it's awesome
and I get tears just even thinking about it, The
moments that we've met kids in their hardest of moments,
and Fredo's just snuggling her way through it all with them.