At Bethany Children’s Health Center, our employees truly are the heartbeat that drives the organization. Every day, through the care and service they provide, they live our mission of maximizing the potential of every child and exemplify our core values of compassion, integrity, excellence, service and stewardship. We hope you enjoy getting to know our amazing employees through our Heartbeat profiles.
How Child Life Specialist, Tacy Hale, teaches and learns from pediatric patients
March is the month when we acknowledge the important contributions of Child Life Specialists in normalizing the hospital experience for kids and their families.
For many pediatric patients, being hospitalized can be a stressful experience. One of the goals at Bethany Children’s Health Center is to work with patients and their families to ensure a positive experience. Tacy Hale, Child Life Specialist, teaches important skills to patients and families experiencing anxiety about procedures and hospitalization.
By providing developmentally appropriate information about upcoming procedures or treatments and developing a coping plan to ease fears and anxieties, Tacy can see how preparation, support, and distraction can make a more positive experience for patients and families.
“I love working with kids on establishing coping skills while they are here. It’s a great feeling when I see them use these skills to make it through a difficult procedure or event,” she shares. “It’s so rewarding to see patients grow and learn during hard situations. My patients inspire me and teach me way more than I could ever teach them!”
Tacy has always loved working with children. “For career day in elementary school, I dressed up as a mom and brought a baby doll to school,” she recalls. Her first job was babysitting. She also cared for a young boy with Down Syndrome, which led to her love of working with children with special needs. “When I learned about the Child Life field, I was so excited because it was everything I wanted to do wrapped up in one job,” she says.
When Tacy came to Bethany Children’s in 2020, she was drawn to the positive energy. “Everyone was so kind, and I could tell they genuinely loved their jobs. I wanted to work at a place where people are passionate about what they do and I definitely found that here,” she says.
She brings her own positive attitude to her role each day, enjoying the small moments and looking for the good in every situation.
Using play to develop patients’ coping skills and self-esteem is a specialty of Tacy’s. “I love adapting popular games such as Apples to Apples, Scattergories or Uno into games related to coping and self-esteem,” she shares. “I’ve created quite a few games that I use with my patients!” For someone who strives to leave people better than she found them, Tacy has found the perfect role in serving children and families as a Child Life Specialist.
Fun Facts:
Something you might not know: “I did a study abroad program in college and lived in Italy for 3 months.”
Favorite hobbies/ways to spend free time: Spending time with family and friends, painting and doing calligraphy, and just relaxing to recharge!
A few of my favorite things: Candles, warm blankets, coffee
Favorite food: Any type of pasta
Favorite music genre, performer or song: Anything country!
Dream weekend: At the beach with my family
From the bucket list: “I would love to go to Australia or New Zealand.”