Building Collaborative Pediatric Care: Physician Assistant and Pre-PA Student Perspectives on Child Life Services

Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLSs) help children and families in pediatric healthcare by providing preparation, education, play, coping support, and family-centered care tailored to each child’s developmental stage. While these skills are valuable for teams working together, there is limited information about how physician assistant (PA) and pre-PA students view child life services or what they need to learn. In this exploratory mixed-methods study, 71 people took part, including practicing PAs, current and pre-PA students, and PA educators. The survey looked at their awareness, experience, confidence, and interest in child life. Quantitative results were described using basic statistics, and differences between practicing PAs and PA/pre-PA students were tested using Fisher’s exact tests with a Holm adjustment. Open-ended answers were reviewed for common themes using keywords. Most participants valued pediatric psychosocial care: 97.1% said understanding children’s emotional and behavioral responses is very important, and 95.7% thought PA students would benefit from child life education. However, 67.1% said they had little or no understanding of the CCLS role, 72.5% had never observed or worked with a CCLS, and only half felt somewhat or very confident in identifying coping strategies. Practicing PAs were more aware of CCLSs and more confident in coping strategies, while students were more interested in a short educational resource. All three differences stayed significant after Holm correction. The qualitative analysis pointed to lifelong trust in healthcare, practical coping tools, age-appropriate communication, caregiver support, and clear roles and referrals. These findings support the development and testing of short, practical child life education in PA programs and interprofessional training.