Miracles In Motion: Jenna
“My passion is to help families through difficult times in any way I possibly can. I help our patients who are coming for outpatient services to normalize the experience and make it a less scary place for them. Patients may be anxious about things from triage to blood draws, IV placements, and port accessing. My goal is to help these children be less frightened so clinic visits aren’t an anxiety-driven event for the patient and their family.
Sometimes when I know that a family is having a hard time, just seeing them smile when I visit them or see them get excited about something makes it a great day. Maybe it is something as simple as getting a massage through our Joey’s Wings Massage Program or getting Butterfly Tickets from Climb for Cancer so they can go to the Butterfly Museum for free makes them feel like they just won the lottery. Or even just visiting with them- it’s a good day when I am able to see some of that tension be released for some of our families. If I or my kids were ever in these shoes, I would hope that there would be someone like me who could come in and just recognize that there is a lot going on and to help bring something positive through it all.” – Jenna Priest, CCLS, CTRS (Certified Child Life Specialist), UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital
The Child Life Program was established to help children and families cope with the stress and anxiety during clinic visits. Child Life Specialists are certified non-medical professionals who understand child development and provide interventions in an environment that will support normal growth and development.
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Miracles in Motion tells the inspiring stories of our pediatric patient families, clinicians and staff members in their everyday lives. These moments are what make UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital such a special place to the more than 150,000 patient families treated here each year. Follow along to learn more about these stories and how Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals makes even the most ordinary moments extraordinary.