i really want to be a child life specialist but at the same time i would love to live in a different country, particularly italy. but does italy offer jobs as a child life specialist or something similar to that. i really want to work with kids, but not be a teacher. i want something similar to working with disabled or ill children like in a hospital. do any schools in Europe offer a degree in child education, child development, child life, psychology, etc? Many thanks!
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This is one of the most idiotic 'PROFESSIONS' ever created. I am not trying to hurt anyone, just posting honest opinions and the truth. Child Life Specialist: These individuals get paid about 40k-60k a year to play with the kids. That's it. That's all they do. No training, no therapy, no teaching, no nothing. The sort of thing the candystripers used to do in an earlier, more sane world. Many of these so-called child life specialists (not all,) have bachelors degrees in psychology, early childhood education, or yadayadayada yada. However, do their jobs really require any of these four year degrees? No! Technically, pediatric nurses or nursing assistants are more than capable of doing the same thing, and also good honest volunteers! These people are working in a hospital setting, which in America unfortunately establishes a hierarchial structure, with the doctors being on top because they spent all the time and effort to go to medical school, the nurses after them, and these 'specialists' at the bottom. So in actuality this hierarchial system causes them to be more self aware and have a low self esteem. Because of this they treat volunteers like crap to make themselves feel superior, or because they feel like their jobs are threatened! They make a career out of something that should be made common sense to everyone that has or doesn't have kids! One ultimately paid for - and this is the best part - by the families of the sick kids themselves! When I and others have volunteered at the hospital for over four years, that is exactly why they didn't like me and other volunteers, because they felt we were taking away their jobs! At any point if they felt their jobs threatened by any volunteer or staff member, they simply tried to find ways to make that person quit (it's the same as the UAW in the Automotive industry, and what really killed the automotive industry!) Perhaps they could get a night job as a "Beer Drinking Specialist" and get the bar to pay you for the right to drink their beer. Unfortunately we Americans are creating service based, useless jobs to keep the economy going (No other country, including western countries that have better overall ranking health care systems such as Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, have a useless job such as a Child Life Specialist.) It's not because these other countries are evil and don't care about sick kids, it's simply because they realize that you don't need a four year college degree and useless certification to do this! Here's an honest question for you: Is there really a need for a four year college degree and some type of 'crafted' certification (which by the way I am sure someone sitting at home is collecting quite some money from,) to do this job? NO!!!! Or could the hospitals hire a nursing assistant for $10/hour instead of paying someone over $40K-$60K to do the same thing? Face the real facts: the 'Child life specialists' are nothing but a marketing ploy for the competing hospitals to try and make more money! It's a way to advertise their facilities as being better so a person will go to their hospital instead of a competing hospital. Like I mentioned before, unfortunately, this is why health care reform is needed in this country -- because medicine is turning into a big business! In the short term, these jobs can make people feel more valuable and better about what they do. However, the real fact is that this is simply a wasteful product of american consumerism capitalism. Instead of promoting more parental and community awareness of how to raise children, help the sick children in communities, the American university and medical system is creating more useless jobs out of it! The universities create more psychology based programs because it is a much easier field to study and go into (compared to real fields such as engineering or medicine, what do you do with a bachelors degree in psychology? nothing!) and the universities want the money. This is exactly the situation and greed which caused the housing bubble and led to the banking bailouts, which killed the auto industry and the auto bailouts, and it's what's killing health care system now and needs health care reform. I am only mentioning all this so people looking to go into these types of profession realize how they are part of and affect the overall system! What we don't need in this country is college graduates going into ridiculous fields such as this. What we do need is more people working and studying harder in science, real engineering, and real medicine to develop the future. It's a lot more difficult and a lot of work, I know, and unfortunately people often want to take the easy way rather than the more difficult road.
