“Benefits for All Parties”: A Mixed-Methods Study Examining Outcomes of a Child Life Internship Matching Program

The growth of child life clinical internships has contributed to the significant expansion of the child life profession; yet, little research has explored innovative methods for growing and improving the application and acquisition models. Therefore, this convergent, parallel mixed-methods study examined the outcomes of a regional child life internship matching program pilot. The pilot matching program included six clinical sites offering 10 internship positions and 31 student applicants from the six participating child life academic programs. After submission of the Internship Readiness Common Application and interviews, students and clinical sites completed rankings of one another, and 10 matches were identified using an objective, statistical algorithm created for this pilot program. Thirty-six students, internship coordinators, internship committee members, and academic coordinators who participated in the internship matching program completed a program satisfaction survey, and 13 individuals completed a semi-structured interview about their experiences in the matching program. Overall, participants were very satisfied with the internship matching program and reported being very likely to participate if offered again. Across different participant groups, noted benefits included a better commitment of time compared to the general application process, increased opportunities for valuable communication, and improved management of the cognitive and emotional load of the internship application process. For internship coordinators, there was a significant decrease in time spent reviewing applications and increased opportunities to get to know applicants better. These findings provide evidence for the potential role of an internship matching program in child life, specifically at the regional level.