Background Child life specialists (CLSs) play an important role in supporting patients and their families during their visits to a children’s hospital. Although CLSs are equipped with considerable expertise to support families during some of the most difficult moments of their lives, we introduced an additional resource to them in the form of a humanoid robot named MEDi. Objective The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of CLSs using a robot to support children. Methods We interviewed 7 CLSs who had worked with this robot for several years. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using open and axial coding. Results The first main theme that emerged was the process of navigating from fear to friendship in learning to use a humanoid robot for therapeutic support. The second major theme was MEDi as a source of connection and support to children. CLSs’ perceptions of MEDi as an adaptable resource and working with the limits of MEDi constituted the last 2 themes. Conclusions These descriptions show how CLSs can incorporate a robot into their practice.

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The therapeutic arts (TA) encompass a vast area of practices including art, music, drama, dance, and horticultural therapy in multiple settings. However, TA often lack recognition in hospital settings and may be viewed as expendable programming. Credibility and visibility obtained through research was needed to build effective links to partners and policymakers at a pediatric hospital. In terms of research methods, we used participatory action research to guide the process of facilitating the building of research capacity in TA practitioners. We interviewed eight hospital stakeholders to investigate barriers and facilitators to TA research. Interview themes included: barriers to research; strategies to facilitate TA research; research gaps; and practice gaps. Research capacity growth included a shift from a passive role in research to a more active role; this factor occurred alongside the difficulties of juxtaposing research with practitioner duties. We conclude that with a clearer understanding of the hospital research environment, TA practitioners can build support and a social network for research engagement; this process has begun, in part, as a result of this research. R ESUM ELes arts th erapeutiques englobent une vaste gamme de pratiques comprenant l'art, la musique, le th eâtre, la danse et la th erapie par l'horticulture, et ce dans de multiples contextes. Cependant, les arts th erapeutiques sont peu reconnus et trop souvent consid er es comme des programmes non prioritaires en milieu hospitalier. La cr edibilit e et la visibilit e conf er ees par cette recherche ont permis de tisser des liens efficaces avec les partenaires et les d ecideurs dans un hôpital p ediatrique. En termes de m ethodes de recherche, nous avons utilis e la recherche-action pour y guider un processus de renforcement des capacit es en recherche parmi les praticiens des arts th erapeutiques. Nous avons interview e huit parties prenantes de l'hôpital pour etudier les obstacles et les entr ees pour la recherche en arts th erapeutiques. Les th emes d'entrevue ont inclus: les obstacles a la recherche; les strat egies pour faciliter la recherche en arts th erapeutiques; les lacunes de la recherche; et les lacunes dans la pratique. Le renforcement des capacit es en recherche a permis de passer d'un rôle passif dans la recherche a un rôle plus actif; ce facteur s'est produit parall element aux difficult es a combiner la recherche et les fonctions de praticien. Nous concluons qu'en d eveloppant une meilleure compr ehension de l'environnement de recherche de l'hôpital, les praticiens des arts th erapeutiques peuvent obtenir du soutien et construire un r eseau social pour l'engagement en recherche; ce processus a d ej a commenc e, en partie grâce a cette recherche.

BACKGROUND Child life specialists (CLSs) play an important role in supporting patients and their families during their visits to a children’s hospital. Although CLSs are equipped with considerable expertise to support families during some of the most difficult moments of their lives, we introduced an additional resource to them in the form of a humanoid robot named MEDi. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of CLSs using a robot to support children. METHODS We interviewed 7 CLSs who had worked with this robot for several years. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using open and axial coding. RESULTS The first main theme that emerged was the process of navigating from fear to friendship in learning to use a humanoid robot for therapeutic support. The second major theme was MEDi as a source of connection and support to children. CLSs’ perceptions of MEDi as an adaptable resource and working with the limits of MEDi constituted the last 2 themes. CONCLUSIONS These descriptions show how CLSs can incorporate a robot into their practice.