Training child life students: guidelines for hospital supervisors.

The majority of child life programs offer some type of student practicum experience. At present there are no programmatic guidelines for hospital supervisors to follow in their task of training professionals. There is growing concern within the child life profession that students are being trained in field programs that have widely divergent content, objectives, expectations, supervisory methods, and evaluation criteria. There is a need to establish some commonly endorsed standards for clinical supervision within the hospital. In the spring of 1982, the Child Life Council appointed a committee for this specific purpose. This paper represents the beginning of that task. The guidelines put forth here have not yet been presented to the Council for endorsement.