EPISODE 5: Children Aren’t Just Small Adults?- Brielle Swerdlin MS, CCLS

Today’s Guest

Brielle Swerdlin

Brielle Swerdlin, MS, CCLS earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Utica College, where she majored in Psychology- Child Life. After working in the field of child life for a few years she completed her Master of Science degree in Healthcare Administration from Colorado State University- Global.

Brielle joined the child life team at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse, NY five years ago after working as a one-person program at Edinburg Children’s Hospital in Edinburg, TX for three years.
Currently Brielle provides services to patients in the Pediatric Emergency Department at a Level One Trauma Center in New York that serves patients in 17 counties from the Pennsylvania border to the Canadian border. 

This past April, Brielle had the honor to present at the Association for Child Life Professionals national conference with her co-worker on the collaborative program they began with the Onondaga County Medical Examiners Office. Professionally, Brielle’s interestsinclude bereavement, trauma, children with special needs, child abuse and trauma-informed care.

Email: brielleswerdlin@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Brielle Swerdlin
https://www.childlife.org/

Key Takeaways

• Brielle stresses the need to advocate for yourself as an essential part of the team
• She feels that sharing your specific knowledge and unique skillset can be challenging at times, especially at institutions with high turnover.
• Brielle advises that being friendly with people is important to building rapport and keeping the humanity at work.

“Everyone who works at your facility is part of your team”

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Transcript

Andrew Tisser 0:12
Who are those people running around the hospital with an iPad? What is a child life specialist? And what can they teach us about communication not only with children, but with each other? Learn the answer to these questions and many more. In this episode of the talk to me doc podcast.

{Intro Plays]

Hey guys, this is Andrew. Welcome back to the Talk2MeDoc podcast. If you’ve already subscribed, thank you so much. If you’re new to this show, please hit subscribe because today, like with every episode, I bring to you the best guests from all around healthcare to discuss communication and how we can fix it.

Today I have a special guest for you. This interview is really a treat. Brielle Swerdlin earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Utica College, where she majored in psychology Child Life. After working in the field of child life for a few years, she completed her Master of Science degree in healthcare administration from Colorado State University global Brielle joined the Child Life team at Upstate callsign on Children’s Hospital in Syracuse, New York five years ago after working as a one person program at Edinburg Children’s Hospital in Edinburg, Texas for three years.

Currently, Brielle provides services to patients in the pediatric emergency department at a level one trauma center in New York that serves patients in 17 counties from the Pennsylvania border to the Canadian border. This past April Brielle had the honor to present at the Association for Child Life professionals national conference with your co worker on the collaborative program.

They begin Would the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s Office, professionally Brianna’s interests include bereavement trauma, children with special needs child abuse and trauma informed care. Brielle has really enlightening view on team based communication. She has an uplifting personality that you would expect for someone that deals with children. Brielle has taught me many things over the years, and I credit her with many improvements to my practice. Well, enough of me. Let’s welcome Brianna to the show. Hey, Bri Swerdlin Welcome to the Talk2MeDoc Podcast.

Brielle Swerdlin 2:38
Thank you, Dr. Tisser. I’m excited to be here.

Andrew Tisser 2:42
Awesome. All right, Andrew, from now on, let’s just like get rid of that from the beginning. So I already recorded a little intro about you based on your bio, but if you could give the listeners a few sentences about who you are, what you do and all that.

Brielle Swerdlin 2:57
Yeah, so my name is Bri Swerdlin. I am a child life specialist at a level one pediatric emergency department in Central New York. And as a child, a specialist, I help help kids and their families with the fear and anxiety of being in the hospital, providing education preparation, and of course, play to our kiddos helping them get through their hospital process.

Andrew Tisser 3:21
Yeah, I remember when I was training, that’s how Bri and I first met at Upstate and Syracuse that it was really nice having a child life specialist in the pediatric emergency department. I mean, I still miss buzzy the bee!

Brielle Swerdlin 3:35
Yes, buzzy is a great tool that we have. buzzy vibrates for those of you who don’t know near the area where we do an IV start or an IM injection and it works on the on gate theory was created by Dr. Amy Baxter, who is a pediatrician and so we use buzzy a lot for a lot of our procedures. IV starts I am injections digital Things like that.

Andrew Tisser 4:01
Awesome. So if you can explain to listeners a little more, what is Child Life? Where did it come from? How you got interested in it?

Brielle Swerdlin 4:11
Yeah, so Child Life has been around for 30 some odd years. Some people may know us as the play ladies, that’s kind of what it started like back in the day. And when plank, thank you for starting our career. And so what it is, is basically we hope the kids get through the hospital process. I started I wanted to work with kids, but didn’t want to be a teacher. Sorry, to all the teachers out there, shout out to you, you do great work just wasn’t for me. But so wanted to work with kids started down a different healthcare path working with kids. And that wasn’t for me either. So I decided to see what my college had and what my institution had, and scrolling through their website of possible majors and came upon Child Life, read the description and said, Yep, this is what I’m going to do. So started from there.

It’s a pretty cool field I get to work with kids Child Life kind of is in all sorts of different atmospheres, both in traditional settings like the hospital and in some non traditional settings, which is pretty cool that we’ve had the ability to branch out. And so the team I work on is currently 13 child life specialists at our hospital. So we have childcare specialists in the outpatient setting, surgery, radiology, of course, the emergency department where I work, and we also have childhood specialists in the inpatient setting, so on all of our inpatient, pediatric floors, so it’s pretty cool. It’s we definitely have a unique role with the healthcare team.

We do a lot of supporting and advocating for our patients. We are not medically trained in the sense that we did not go to medical school like that, but we are trained in psychology, child development with a very good understanding and training in the healthcare system. So it’s a pretty unique fields, but I think it’s the coolest Not only do I get to see really awesome things in the hospital and with our patients, but I also get to do arts and crafts and play video games. So it’s a it’s a pretty cool field.

Andrew Tisser 6:12
Yeah, and then playing video games or work would be really fun.

Brielle Swerdlin 6:15
Yes, it is some days until, until I’m too competitive, and I lose the games, you know?

Andrew Tisser 6:20
while the kids are probably a lot better than I would be right now.

Brielle Swerdlin 6:24
Oh, that’s I’ve never played a video game until I started my job. So I always lose. But my competitive streak comes out every once in a while.

Andrew Tisser 6:32
So Bri, this is a communication based podcast and it really is focusing on communication within the greater health care team. You’re the first person that I have on the show that deals exclusively with pediatrics. How do you think communication is different in regards to pediatric patients, parents and their interactions with the rest of the team?

Brielle Swerdlin 6:55
I think something that makes working with a pediatric population different than working with the adult population is that with the adult population, your primary goal is to focus on talking to the patient themselves, they’re the ones receiving the care. Now, occasionally, you probably have to talk to their family members, if they are unable to make their own decisions, or if they bring their family members to their appointments, but your your gear is to talking towards the patient itself. in pediatrics, we’re not just talking to the patient until the patient is 18. They can’t decide their medical treatment by themselves in most cases.

And so we have to do a lot of talking to the families and explaining what has to happen. But we also have to be mindful of providing that family centered care and talking to the patient because they’re the one who’s having everything happen. So communication in pediatrics has to be multifaceted. So we’re communicating with the patient. But then we also have people like myself who worked to advocate for the patient who have to communicate with the medical team. So there’s there’s a lot more of a communication dynamic. In my opinion in pediatrics with who needs to be discussed with what and all of those pieces to make sure that you’re providing the best healthcare proper process to the patient and their family.

Andrew Tisser 8:13
Makes sense. And you touched on advocating for the patient with the rest of the team. Do you ever run into challenges, whether that be approaching providers or maybe being dismissed as a as a member of the team just because you’re not medically trained?

Brielle Swerdlin 8:32
I definitely think that has the very big potential to happen. Every facility is different and everybody’s training as a provider in that medical team is different. And if you’ve never been around a child, a specialist, or a situation where you’ve had somebody advocating for the patient that is not maybe their family member, it can definitely be a little unique. In some situations, you’re working in a teaching institution where the new residents and the specialty residents have never heard of a child a specialist before.

And their goal is just to get the work done so they can see the next patient. And sometimes that can make advocating for the patient or communicating with the medical team a little bit hard because it’s trying to juggle and challenge yourself to think, Okay, what needs to happen right this moment, what can we advocate maybe for some pain medication? Or how can we work as a team to provide a better experience? And sometimes the providers, the doctors, the residents, the therapists, they don’t have that experience working, thinking that way for the patient. And so Yes, it can. It’s definitely easy to be dismissed in this field. And it takes some getting used to learning how to advocate also for yourself as a professional to be part of that medical team to make decisions.

Andrew Tisser 9:49
Well, that makes a lot of sense. Do you have any advice for maybe not only child life specialist but other members of the team that maybe are having difficulty being recognized or being dismissed. Such, just based on your experiences.

Yeah, everybody in the medical team and I view the medical team is more than just the doctors and the people providing direct care medical team is anybody in that institution. So anybody in your institution is part of your team. And it’s really important to remember that as well when you are trying to be part of that team. And recognizing that other people don’t necessarily think that way. And other people haven’t had the same experiences that you’ve had or don’t have the same background. So for me, it’s very easy for me to think about why a kid might react a certain way. But I have an education in child development and in psychology, so I understand why kids might react a certain way to a procedure or to information about a diagnosis.

Brielle Swerdlin 10:47
But new residents, new doctors, doctors who haven’t had these experiences, therapists, anybody else working with this patient might not have had those same experiences to understand why a kid might react a certain way. So providing information, being honest explaining why you feel a certain way and then not holding it against people, if they don’t view your viewpoint as one that should be followed is really important, you’re likely going to have to work with these people again. And you don’t want anybody to feel resentment towards you. And you don’t want to feel resentment towards anybody you have to work with for other patients and for the best care provided to the patients and their families.

Andrew Tisser 11:26
Yeah, that’s great. I mean, that what you’re saying, I mean, that’s the whole purpose of the show is to explore communication within the greater team, including everybody, not just the doctors and physician assistants and residents and everybody. Do you? Do you feel that being at a teaching hospital makes your job easier or harder?

Brielle Swerdlin
It’s a little bit of both. I feel that some times working in a teaching facility makes my job easier because my residents that I’m working with my nurses that I’m working with, they recognize Is that we’re in a teaching hospital, there’s a lot of discussion happening with the team. And so me imparting some of my knowledge from my understanding of working with children, is really viewed as something that’s super beneficial. At the same time working in a teaching facility that rotates the people that I work with on a pretty regular basis. And so it’s constant. It’s a constant game of restarting that teaching process for me as well, while I’m not directly providing their education, sharing my knowledge and sharing what I know about working with kids and their families, really helps them learn. But I have to start that new every year. Every year we bring in new staff, and if the learnings, the learning has to start again, and because of that, it can make it really hard to advocate for your patients.

Brielle Swerdlin 12:49
What you may be advocating for at the end of June changes when you start advocating in July and you have a whole new set of student doctors and so Student therapists and student nurses who are learning. Now you have to start again, you have to explain why these things are super important versus what you were doing a few days before with residents who already had been learning from you for a year. Then to them, you say, Oh, I think this patient would do better with X, Y, and Z. And they’re like, Oh, yes, because they’ve learned from you already. And they’ve seen the difference that makes so there is definitely a challenge in working in a teaching facility, but it’s something that I find great because now I can share my knowledge with these new providers and help them see what is out there what they can use in the future.

Andrew Tisser 13:40
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I, I always remember some of the interactions we had, and this was years ago now. And I think I carried that forward into my own practice. I was so we had a good rapport. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but how do you how do you go about establishing that rapport with new whether That’d be residents, students, nurses, or who any anyone you’re interacting with who’s like, well, Who the hell is this person? You know?

Unknown Speaker 14:08
Yeah, well, I do agree we did have a great report. But I think part of building that report is recognizing that we’re all there for professional reason. But we’re all humans, and we all have pieces and insecurities and nervousness about learning and about growing as professionals. Just because I have this degree doesn’t mean that I’m 100% know everything in my field. And so I’m still constantly learning as well. And so recognizing that we’re still all in this learning piece and just trying to be a human, with your co workers. And, yes, there are definitely professional boundaries that there have to be maintained. But recognizing that we’re just trying to do what’s best for the patient and keeping the patient and their family in mind, helps you build that rapport and then chatting with people when there’s some downtime, figuring out people’s likes, dislikes just being friends and being friendly. with people that helps build that rapport.

Brielle Swerdlin 15:03
When we first started working together, Andrew, you probably were like, Who is this lady over here? Why does she want me to let this kid lay in this really weird position for this lack repair so that they can play on the iPad? What does this mean? But then with doing in getting to know me, you realize that, oh, maybe she’s not so crazy, this lady who had carries this iPad and iPad around and who wants to do arts and crafts, maybe this could work, and we try it once. And then you’re realizing, oh, maybe it does work. And then even if it doesn’t work, we’ve still built that rapport and that relationship that Ok, so maybe it didn’t work in this time.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not going to work next time. And that’s the piece. It’s not just get in, do your job. You have to recognize that the people around you and the people you’re working with have the skills and building that rapport and just being friendly and getting to know those people helps you to realize that just because something may not work one day Time, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to work all the time.

Andrew Tisser 16:03
That’s great advice. I mean, I think it seems so simple, right? Just be a person and talk to people and get to know them. But I don’t think it really happens all that much.

Brielle Swerdlin 16:17
I agree. And I think part of that is because people are so self. I don’t want to say self centered but thinking about what they need to do to get their job done so they can get get on and move on with their lives. Whether that be because there’s some social function happening, or because they want to hang out with their friends or because they want to get home to their families. And while those are great things and like I said, professional boundaries are super important for still here, and we have to all be together for 810 12 hours, might as well make it useful and make it have a good time and every person on the team is super important. And so getting to know those people helps you have a better time during your 810 12 1416, whatever, 24 hours, whatever it may be.

Brielle Swerdlin 17:03
And I think that’s the piece, keeping that humanity in it. And that communication is so important, because I’m sorry, but I don’t want to spend my 10 hour shift, sitting by myself just waiting for my patient, to have the need for something to do, but then not talking to anybody else. That doesn’t sound fun. And that definitely isn’t going to be what’s best for my patient in the long run. If I don’t have that rapport with the nursing staff where we go to start that IV, well, then that’s not helpful because we’re not going to have that, that interaction that where I know what my nursing staff is thinking and what they know where I’m thinking, and we’re not going to provide the best interaction for that patient. But it is hard and it is hard for some people to feel the ability to open up and really make those connections but it’s definitely something that I think everybody in the healthcare team should work on.

Andrew Tisser 17:53
Completely. I mean, it started selfish for me, I’d be like, well, I don’t want to be bored at work. So I’m going to talk to everybody Over the years, I, I really think that it’s, I mean, how many times you saved my butt and nurses say my but the pharmacies, the pharmacy is dead. I mean, it’s. And that’s just because we chit chat about whatever is going on, you know,

Brielle Swerdlin 18:18
it’s even more than that and thinking about it on a personal level as well, like, I don’t want to be bored either. I want to talk to everybody. I don’t want to spend my 8, 10, 12 whatever hours I’m in the hospital, sitting there by myself. Like, I mean, granted, I love to read, but work is not the time to be reading. And so why am I going to sit around waiting for some interactions to happen with my patients when I can be interacting with my staff, but that is everybody. There are definitely days where security is my best friend because we were working with a hard patient and security gets called. And if I don’t have the rapport with the security, instead of letting me talk to patients and try to figure out what’s happening or you know, whatever security Going to go in and do their thing. And we have to work together when we have upset families because they’ve been delivered, you know, news that may not be great.

Brielle Swerdlin 19:06
There are grief reactions that happen. And sometimes they’re loud. And sometimes they can be a little destructive. And if I don’t have that rapport with my security staff, then security is going to do their job and my job won’t intermix with theirs. But if we have that rapport, then that grief reaction, maybe I can help that family channel that into a different way. And then security doesn’t have to be involved, because I can help the family and the security trust that I know what I’m doing, or our housekeeping staff. I’m the lady who provides all the kids the crayons and the stickers. I mean, that just sets me up for people not liking me, especially on our housekeeping staff.

I mean, I have been told many times that we can only use a certain brand of crayons because the other crayons are harder to clean off off the floor off the walls. I mean, I owe you I give kids things to make a mess. But if I didn’t have that release, kinship with my housekeeping staff, then giving crayons and stickers just doesn’t set us up for success, it sets us up for failure. Because I haven’t expressed that I am part of their team. I am the first one when I see stickers and cfrayons, to walk right up to housekeeping and be like, Hey, can I get that little? The little scrapey? Think so I can get the stickers off like this. I’m sorry. I did it. Let me take it off. Because I were part of a team. And so it’s important to have that communication with everybody.

Andrew Tisser 20:30
I agree. I mean, I think it’s a refreshing outlook that that you’re expressing here and really gets to the root of this show. Have you run into many challenges in your career?

Brielle Swerdlin 20:43
Yes, the first hospital I was out I was a one person program. So what that means is it was just me as the Child Life team, and I was tasked with, you know, interacting with so many different people. And while there were so many great things being one person makes it hard to be everywhere at the same time, and then transitioning to a larger team. And a larger facility that also has its challenges and being respected as a member of the team. You have to earn that respect and you have to earn your your keep so to say, and you have to join a whole new team. I moved from a hospital where we were a staff of 500. Whether you worked in pediatrics or adults, I likely knew your name, I likely knew who you were.

Brielle Swerdlin 21:29
Now I’m at a hospital with, I think just a nursing staff of 5000. I don’t even know how many employees are at our current hospital and I look at people all the time in the cafeteria, and I don’t know who they are. And that can make it unique and interesting. And then working at a facility where we’re a children’s hospital inside of an adult hospital. There are occasions where we get calls from adult units and adult and adult areas of the hospital and they don’t really know who we are what we do, and they’re asking for help and services that maybe I can’t provide to them. And those can definitely be trying times when you’re trying to communicate with them about why you can’t help them or what, what changes need to be made or who they should be reaching out to, because they just see that there’s this person here who’s supposed to be able to help us, but I can’t. And so those times have definitely been a little challengingand then unique to navigate through.

Andrew Tisser 22:23
Sure, absolutely. Do you. You’ve touched on this before. Do you think that improved, successful communication within the healthcare team trickles down to better patient care and outcomes?

Brielle Swerdlin 22:37
100%. I think in pediatrics, we think about procedural planning, a little bit more than in the adult world. And when I say procedural planning, I don’t mean what procedure has to happen and what anesthesia needs to be used to get that done. That’s not necessarily what I mean. But for something as simple as As an IV or an I am injection, the medical team has to have a discussion beforehand. And sometimes that discussion after years of working with each other is nonverbal. Or you just kind of know because you’ve been doing it for so long. But you have to know how you’re going to approach a, let’s say, four year old to do an IV star. How many team members do you need? What do you need?

Brielle Swerdlin 23:24
Does this patient need a pre medication before this happens, what options are available to you, if you don’t have good communication, we’re not doing our best service to the patient. There are very different ways that an IV start on a four year old could happen. Things could go very, very well. We could use positions of comfort, which is the family member, maybe holding them or whatever is comforting to the patient. We could be using a pre medication, we could be using items like buzzy or a topical pain spray or a topical numbing cream.

We could be using distraction items like an iPad and I spy book Little find it too, which is like a nice by tube. There are all sorts of things we could be using. And so if we don’t have that communication between the medical team about what our options might be for this procedure or for this situation, then are we really providing the best tools and the best process to the patient and their family. And I think that’s what makes it so important.

And I think in pediatrics, we do a really unique job of seeing that in an adult, you might walk in by yourself as the only nurse or the only provider to put an IV in, because as an adult, you can talk to them, and you can say, Okay, this is going to be a pinch, and then most people as as an adult, have had bloodwork done. So doing an IV is very similar. And today 123 it’s done, but in pediatrics is very different. And I think that pediatrics shows that communication is very important. And I think in most places, whether you realize it or not you’re having those conversations and That communication, it’s just being effective or is it not?

Andrew Tisser 25:04
Agreed. I mean, so what you’re saying is we don’t just go in there, grab the kid time to the bed and do what we need to do. I mean,

Brielle Swerdlin 25:17
I really hope we don’t do that to kids. And I try really hard to not let that happen.

Andrew Tisser 25:24
I vividly remember being like six or seven years old needing stitches. After I ran through a shopping mall, for a box of bugles and split my chin open, just being held down to the bed while while they did this ditches, it’s like a vivid memory. So I’m glad we don’t do it that way anymore.

Unknown Speaker 25:48
I mean, that is also a location specific and training specific. I also have a memory from being very young and needing some blood work to rule out some things that were going on. And nobody told me 100% nobody told me I think my mom might have said, like, we’re going to get some tests done. But I think I was like seven, or eight. And so like, what did that mean to me and we get to the lab and they had me sit on my mom’s lap, but then there were like, four other people there. And then nobody told me what was happening. And I’m just sitting on my lap and they put that little arm of the chair down, right, the phlebotomy chair. And then somebody grabs my arm and holds it out.

Brielle Swerdlin 26:29
And then they put this tight rubber band on it. Really everybody, other people are holding my arms and people are holding my legs. And what happened I freaked out. My poor mother had bruises up and down everywhere. But then a few weeks later, when I needed bloodwork, I walked in, sat on the chair by myself and hold my arm out because at least this time, I knew what was happening.

Somebody said you have to get a test done. I said, Okay, I know what that is. And I sat down and look at what communication could have changed for me or for you as a patient. I mean, you might not have liked to getting stitches and you might not have liked your light of cane injection that they likely gave you to numb everything up. But if they talked to you about it probably would have been a little bit nicer. Same with my blood work.

Andrew Tisser 27:10
I mean it. You know, in my mind, I was in like this dimly lit room with like, you know, it’s like a horror film in my mind, but I’m sure that’s not what it was. But that’s how I remember it because it was just, it was scared, you know?

Brielle Swerdlin 27:22
Exactly. Well, that’s why it’s so, you know, location specific, because there are definitely hospitals out there that don’t have travelers specialists and don’t teach their employees how to utilize this type of communication with our patients. So at least maybe if people have communication between themselves as the medical team, maybe things can still get better. But I’m sure there are definitely facilities out there who would just hold a seven year old down to do some stitches?

Andrew Tisser 27:52
Absolutely. Yeah, really. And a lot of that is the background of the nursing staff and and how the physicians were trained. And I mean, the A lot that goes into it. But it’s, it’s things can be a lot easier or they cannot be and a lot of that has to do with communication not only with the child but with the parents and everyone that’s, that’s there.

Brielle Swerdlin 28:13
Exactly. I definitely agree with that.

Andrew Tisser 28:18
Well, this part of the show, I like to transition to get to know the guests a little bit better. You already talked about child life and what it is and how you got interested in it. We you mentioned reading that you don’t want to do it on shift but on your downtime, what’s your favorite book of all time and a current book recommendation?

Brielle Swerdlin 28:39
I don’t actually think I have a favorite book of all time. I definitely have a favorite genre. I am a sappy romance kind of gal. And I currently have two authors who I am loving their books. Amelia Finn rights out of Australia. Of course, they’re sappy romance novels. They’re good. They’re, they definitely make you fall in love. And then Brittany so he writes sappy romance novels that have to do with navy seals, so nothing can be bad in that book.

Andrew Tisser 29:14
That’s very specific.

Brielle Swerdlin 29:16
Yes, yes.

Andrew Tisser 29:19
Do you do you ever read any nonfiction?

Brielle Swerdlin 29:24
Not often. I feel that I work in a field that is very stressful and has a lot of you know, sometimes I see things that are sad and depressing. And so I like to read happy everything and happy types of books just for my own, you know, mental well being. So not a ton of nonfiction.

Andrew Tisser 29:47
Great. That’s good to hear. It’s certainly a stress relief after some of these crazy flu season days.

Brielle Swerdlin 29:54
Oh, yes. Hello respiratory season.

Andrew Tisser 29:58
So Bri, what do you like to do for fun

Brielle Swerdlin 30:01
I definitely enjoy spending the time with my dog. I have a 13 pound little weenie dog, who is Mama’s little boy and loves snuggles on my couch. I also play volleyball, played in college and have continued to keep up with that. Not as competitively, but just for fun. And I I enjoy just being active and having other ways to make my mind go so that way I can de stress from a hard day at work certainly needed.

Andrew Tisser:
Now, if you could give physicians or providers in general one piece of advice in the area of communication as a whole now it doesn’t have to be pediatric specific. What would that piece of advice be?

Brielle Swerdlin 30:48
Everybody who works in your facility is part of your team. And everybody who works in your facility has experienced that you may or may not have and so everybody piece of information is valuable, some more valuable than others, but, but those pieces all of that those relationships will build to provide a great healthcare experience for your patient. So, if the housekeeper suggests that you don’t use a certain brand of crayons, then maybe you’re not using that certain brand of grants because they know if a nurse looks at you and says, based on my 30 years of experience, I don’t think this is going to work. There might be a reason, if you don’t necessarily agree, ask why ask questions investigate, but every person was trained for their job in their role, and every person has seen things, and so they know. So everybody is important

Andrew Tisser 31:48
about it. Yeah, you gotta trust those 30 year experienced nurses because they’ve been there. They’ve been doing it.

Brielle Swerdlin 31:55
Yeah. But even those nurses who are newer some of those newer staff members, They have ideas that maybe you haven’t thought of, because that’s not how you were trained. And so recognizing that there’s a reason these people work here, there’s a reason these people are here on this team. I think that’s like the biggest piece. I know that sometimes it’s hard to work with residents at a teaching facility. I get it. But they have experiences that I haven’t had either. I mean, you know, when you got your stitches, you didn’t have a great time.

And so if you had said to me, You know, I, as a patient really didn’t like laying down is there a different way? You think we could do this? I totally would have been like, yeah, let’s think about what’s brainstorm. Where’s the laceration that we need to draw on this patient? Okay, how can we make this happen for them? And so having kind of that communication and realizing that everybody on the team has some knowledge that might be beneficial to you is super important.

Andrew Tisser 32:53
Totally. I agree completely. Now, if people want to reach out to you or learn more About Child Life as a career or just have a little chat, how can they reach you?

Brielle Swerdlin 33:06
I can be found on LinkedIn. But you can also reach me via email. And my email address is (SEE ABOVE).

Andrew Tisser 33:19
Thanks, Bri. And for the listeners, all that information will be in the show notes to make it easier for you. Well, I really enjoyed this talk. Bri, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your insight. And thanks again for all the years that appstate where are you told me not to do certain things because it’s certainly changed my career for the better.

Unknown Speaker 33:40
Of course, it’s an honor to be here talking about child life. Of course, people can reach out to me via email if you’re interested in learning more about child life as a as a profession. The association for childbirth professionals has a website, a child life.org that you can look at to see more information about that, but I’m happy And I’m glad that I got to share this experience and talking about communication. And I’m glad to see that you are doing such great things, Andrew, it’s so phenomenal.

Andrew Tisser 34:09
Thanks, Bri. I really appreciate it. We’ll talk soon.

what an amazing interview with Bri. She has an infectious personality and it’s just so easy to talk to. I guess that’s what you would expect from someone who works primarily with children. I thought it was interesting that Bri thought that often people have to advocate for themselves as an important role in the healthcare team. And that sharing her knowledge and unique role could be challenging at times, especially with a turnover at a teaching institution.

Bri’s point about just being friendly with people was refreshing. She states that just having meaningful conversation with people is paramount to building rapport. And it keeps the humanity at work. She definitely Thought that team based rapport was important and improved patient care. If you enjoyed the show, please check out the show notes at talk2medocpod.com/005 that’s talk2medocpod.com/005. Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and tell all your friends and healthcare about what we’re doing here. The other thing I want you to do after listening is mentioned me on twitter at talk to me doc talk number to me do see. Thanks and talk to you real soon.