While a lot of this blog discusses the application of interdisciplinarity in a school setting, there are many, many examples of interdisciplinarity in the “real world”. In fact, many of us may be doing interdisciplinary work without even noticing. The benefits of interdisciplinarity are plentiful and many industries are realizing how helpful it can be to apply these concepts.
In recent years, a new career has emerged in the healthcare industry that combines a knowledge of psychology, social work and medicine- a career known as child life services. Child life specialists do a wide variety of work, typically in a hospital setting, in order to better the experience for children and their families while the child is admitted. Boston Children’s Hospital’s website lists some of their many duties, including “educating and preparing patients and families about the healthcare experience in an approach that meets their individual needs, helping patients enhance their coping skills when dealing with fear, pain, anxiety and separation from family, friends, and their familiar environments, and educating hospital staff about child development and related issues”. Their website even uses the terms “interdisciplinary” and “multidisciplinary” in describing what child life specialists do. The job involves combining a knowledge of medicine and medical procedures, child development, and therapy techniques and using multiples types of knowledge at one time. For example, one of the things that child life specialists do is explain medical procedures to children in a way that they can understand. In order to do this, they themselves have to understand the procedure (which requires a knowledge of anatomy and physiology and basic medical concepts), use their knowledge of developmental psychology to use age appropriate language, all while keeping from eliciting fear or anxiety in that child. Furthermore, child life specialists also work on a team of healthcare workers in order to fully meet the needs of the patient and their family. This team of healthcare professionals is multidisciplinary in that each person is bringing their own individual knowledge of their discipline in order to give comprehensive treatment.
This career, by being interdisciplinary, has filled a gap that was present in the healthcare field. Child life specialists are able to better help their patients because of the versatility in their knowledge and training. They are a great example of how effective and useful interdisciplinarians are, and other industries should look to this career as an example of innovation that they should follow.
Articles about child life specialists:
-http://www.childrenshospital.org/patient-resources/child-life-specialists
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