March 24-30, 2025, is Child Life Week at Children’s Minnesota! During Child Life Week, we recognize the invaluable impact child life professionals make on the emotional safety of kids and families in health care settings. Certified child life specialists (CCLS) work to promote children’s understanding of, and ability to, cope with health care experiences, and that of their families.
Additionally, child life works to promote normal growth and development and the ability for children and teens to explore, learn, enjoy and engage in and with their world.
In honor of Child Life Week, we are excited to highlight Alison Rusche, MA, certified child life specialist at Children’s Minnesota, to learn more about her role and what inspired her to become a child life specialist.
Get to know Alison!
Tell us about your role.
I am a certified child life specialist (CCLS) working full-time in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at our Minneapolis hospital. I have been at Children’s Minnesota for almost three years. Because I started out as a Float CCLS, I have worked in almost every single unit and area between both hospital campuses and our satellite locations. A CCLS’ role can be very different depending on what unit/area we work in. On the PICU, my role looks like a lot of family and sibling support, helping patients cope during lengthy stays and normalizing the hospital environment as much as possible.
What inspired you to become a child life specialist?
I learned about child life while working on my undergrad degree at the University of Iowa. I participated in Dance Marathon all four years and had a leadership position that included time volunteering at their children’s hospital. When I was hanging out with a kid one day, a CCLS walked in to check in on the patient, and it clicked for me that this is something I could really see myself doing for a career. The next day, I signed up for a class to start my journey to become a CCLS.
How does child life support families, not just children?
We understand that when a child is hospitalized, it affects everyone in their family. For parents and caregivers, we can help coach them through difficult conversations, such as providing developmentally appropriate language to explain a newly found tumor or telling a sibling about the patient’s altered neuro status after a brain infection. We also work together with parents and caregivers to find ways to help their child cope or comply with their medical experience, such as introducing reinforcement charts for medicine taking.
For the siblings of our patients, we recognize how important it is for them to feel included and involved in the hospital journey. In the PICU where many patients are intubated and sedated, I meet with siblings before they visit their brother or sister’s hospital room for the first time and prepare them for what they will experience. I use a doll to explain the jobs of all of the tubes and lines that the patient has and give them a chance to manipulate them and ask questions. I also make sure they feel like they have a job in the room, such as reading the patient their favorite book or creating art to hang on their walls. The same goes for other children in the family, as it is often a cousin that is the patient’s best friend.
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about child life?
I wish everyone knew that while our job often looks like “just having fun” on the outside, we are incredibly intentional with all that we do, and it isn’t always easy. There is a lot of pressure that comes with being the person to help a child comply with a painful or invasive procedure, and while a lot of times our presence and expertise helps the child cope, sometimes it doesn’t. It can be a really heavy job to bear witness to lots of different kinds of trauma and then have to turn around and be your best self for the next child and family.
How do you help make the hospital less scary for kids?
It’s the little things that really add up! It’s wearing a “Bluey” shirt, it’s having their room set up with their favorite toys from their last admission, it’s making sure that everyone has a cozy blanket and stuffed animal for when they wake up after extubation. It’s going on a wild goose chase to find a particular toy when you hear that the patient has a very obscure interest so that you can bring them a little bit of joy during a really difficult experience!
