This summer, Hagan Dietrich returned to the children’s hospital that first inspired her career goal. This time, she was there as an intern, putting what she has learned as a human development and family science (HDFS) major at Samford University’s Orlean Beeson School of Education into practice.
Dietrich, a junior with a concentration in child life, interned at Niswonger Children’s Hospital in her hometown of Johnson City, Tennessee. The experience gave her a closer look at the work she hopes to do as a child life specialist.
Dietrich’s younger brother was born two months early and spent time in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. His care brought the family to Niswonger often, where Dietrich came to know the people who helped children feel at ease. Among them was Amanda, a child life specialist who inspired her.
“Through these experiences, I met Amanda, who inspired me from a young age and made me realize that one day, I wanted to be just like her,” Dietrich said.
Years later, Dietrich returned as an intern. She spent time in areas across the hospital, including the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, emergency room, surgery, gastroenterology, neurology and radiology. The experience helped her see how the principles she is studying apply to children at different ages and in different circumstances.
While completing the internship, Dietrich also took an online play therapy course at Samford.
“I was learning about play therapy and then getting to use what I was learning almost immediately,” she said.
For Dietrich, child life work involves more than helping a child prepare for a medical procedure. Specialists use age-appropriate approaches to help children understand what is happening and find a sense of normalcy in the hospital. They also support parents and siblings as families navigate a diagnosis and treatment.
“It’s more than just walking a child through a procedure,” she said.
The relationships Dietrich built during her internship showed her the value of that work. One patient used the remote at her bedside to ask for Dietrich to return: “I want my best friend, Hagan, to come back!”
“I grew up with children from Niswonger becoming some of my best friends, so hearing that was such a full-circle moment,” Dietrich said. “It reminded me that child life isn’t about a title; it’s about how you make a child feel.”
Dietrich recognizes that becoming a child life specialist will require emotional strength as well as knowledge and compassion. Her advice to students considering the field is to understand what draws them to it.
“You need to know where your heart is because it isn’t an easy job,” she said. “You don’t have to be Superman strong, but the kids are going to see you as Superman.”
At Samford, relationships with her professors have been an important part of preparing Dietrich for that responsibility. Their personal investment has helped her connect her coursework with the career she has imagined since childhood.
“Our professors get to know us by name rather than just students in a class, especially in HDFS,” she said.
Dietrich once knew Niswonger Children’s Hospital as a place where others cared for her family. With the preparation she is gaining at Samford, she hopes to offer that same comfort to children and families of her own.
