Hospital Play Specialist

Hospital Play Specialist

by: Jackie - 04-09-10 10:13

Hi everyone!! I have posted this on another forum but had no response, this seems to be a better option so hopefully there is someone who can help me, I have seen previous posts on the topic, I would appreciate some advice from anyone in the know!!

I have been looking into becoming a hospital play specialist. I have an NVQ level 3 in childcare and have held senior positions in nurseries and currently work as a nanny. I have had a look on the official websites and looked
into the courses. I could get to Bolton college who are running the new foundation degree, however, I cannot afford to give up work or take a lower paid job at the moment, therefore it will not be possible to do this course right now. I am just wondering whether it may be a
good idea to do some short courses in the meantime, such as working with children with SEN, psychology, councelling... These are areas that interest me and i think would help in this career, however, I am a bit unsure of whether this would
be worth spending money on now if it is all going to be covered in the foundation degree. On the other hand, these courses may help me get a job as a play assistant in the future where I could study at the same time.
Another unknown is the financial aspect, the course at Bolton is £1500 just for year one and I'm definately not in a position to pay this myself but i'm not sure I would be entitled to any help as I have done year 1 of a foundation
degree in Health and Social care in the past, although this was part of a job within the NHS so not sure who it was funded by.

Sorry this is such a long post!! Hope someone can help!! Thanks

by: lauralou

Hiya, The course is alot of money at the moment i agree!  I was under the impression that you had to be either working or a consistent volunteer for the NHS to get on the course, but this may of changed? If this is true, contact your local hospitals play team and ask aout their volunteer group.

As for the extra courses, they are really useful to do, but not a requirement. SEN and counselling i would say are the best one to do. Psychology maybe useful aswell to give an understanding, but i would go for the other two first.  Im not sure, again, with the new degree but these are covered on the course, but not in great deal as teaching. Most of the skills you will learn on the job so to speak.

As for funding, there's not a lot really, if you are on certain benefits you may get a reduction in price, but i see you put you work. This is how it was, again may of changed, contact the college student services and they may know!

As you want to work, your best bet is looking for play assistant jobs (nursery nurse ones sometimes arnt actual nursery nurse roles in hospital, e.g you sometimes do healhtcare assistant roles) but these are quite few and far between.

Either way, its a brilliant job, amazing infact, so go for it. Sorry if im just telling you things you already know! good luck x

by: Jackie

Thanks for your reply, I will be doing the short courses for now I think while I have to work and look into it in the future when I can maybe work part time or get a job as an assistant in a hospital. Things will probably have changed again by then anyway as the new foundation degree is only being piloted at the moment so I think I'll just get as much experience and skills as I can and see how things are in a few years! I am also going to contact the children's hospital and see if I can do some volunteer work experience for a week next year or something to make sure its what I want to go for! But I must say it sounds like such a rewarding job and a nice way to use my childcare skills.

Thank you