Patient Opinion of Visiting Therapy Dogs in a Hospital Emergency Department

Working like a Dog: Exploring the Role of a Therapy Dog in Clinical Exercise Physiology Practice

Therapy animals in clinical settings are purported to reduce patients’ anxiety, decrease agitated behaviour, serve as social mediators, enhance the social atmosphere, and increase patients’ openness towards practitioners. A therapy dog worked alongside her exercise physiologist handler for approximately 1 day/week in a university clinic. The canine and handler functioned as a team, while the handler simultaneously undertook supervision of students. The clinic was open 24 h/week, and no other therapeutic animal was present for any part of the week. We explored, via surveys and interviews, human responses to the dog. The survey comprised 15 statement items regarding the canine’s role, behaviour, and acceptability in the clinic, ranked from strongly disagree (−2) to strongly agree (2), followed by an open item inviting participants to follow up interviews. Eleven (11) clinical clients and seven (7) students completed the survey. One client had not encountered the canine; these data were excluded. Four (4) participants from the client sample provided subsequent telephone interviews. All participants identified the canine as well-behaved; no participants considered that she detracted from their exercise sessions. Most participants were equivocal to statements regarding social lubrication and openness to practitioners; only three clients and two students identified that they felt more willing to share health information; three students identified that they felt they could confide more in the canine than in the practitioner. Interviewees’ reports were similarly favourable, reinforcing the information obtained from the surveys. Interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis, which focussed around four key themes: (1) the canine’s good behaviour, (2) clients giving permission, and the canine as both (3) a pleasant distraction from the effort of exercise, and (4) nice to have. A therapy dog may enhance some aspects of exercise physiology service delivery.

Outcomes of a controlled trial with visiting therapy dog teams on pain in adults in an emergency department

CONTEXT

Pain is a primary reason individuals attend an Emergency Department (ED), and its management is a concern.

OBJECTIVES

Change in symptoms and physiologic variables at 3 time points pre-post a ten-minute St. John Ambulance therapy dog team visit compared to no visit in ED patients who experienced pain.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Using a controlled clinical trial design, pain, anxiety, depression and well-being were measured with the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (revised version) (ESAS-r) 11-point rating scales before, immediately after, and 20 minutes post- therapy dog team visit with Royal University Hospital ED patients participating in the study (n = 97). Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded at the time points. Control data was gathered twice (30 minutes apart) for comparison (n = 101). There were no group differences in age, gender or ethnicity among the control and intervention groups (respectively mean age 59.5/57.2, ethnicity 77.2% Caucasian/87.6%, female 43.6% /39.2%, male 56.4%/60.8%,).

INTERVENTION

10 minute therapy dog team visit in addition to usual care.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Change in reported pain from pre and post therapy dog team visit and comparison with a control group.

RESULTS

A two-way ANOVA was conducted to compare group effects. Significant pre- post-intervention differences were noted in pain for the intervention (mean changeint. = -0.9, SD = 2.05, p = .004, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.42, 1.32], ηp2 = 04) but not the control group. Anxiety (mean changeint. = -1.13, SD = 2.80, p = .005, 95% CI = [0.56, 1.64], ηp2 = .04), depression (mean changeint. = -0.72, SD = 1.71, p = .002, 95% CI = [0.39, 1.11], ηp2 = .047), and well-being ratings (mean changeint. = -0.87, SD = 1.84, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.49, 1.25], ηp2 = .07) similarly improved for the intervention group only. There were no pre-post intervention differences in blood pressure or heart rate for either group. Strong responders to the intervention (i.e. >50% reduction) were observed for pain (43%), anxiety (48%), depression (46%), and well-being (41%).

CONCLUSIONS

Clinically significant changes in pain as well as significant changes in anxiety, depression and well-being were observed in the therapy dog intervention compared to control. The findings of this novel study contribute important knowledge towards the potential value of ED therapy dogs to affect patients' experience of pain, and related measures of anxiety, depression and well-being.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This controlled clinical trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, registration number NCT04727749.

The overview of utilizing complementary therapy to relieve stress or anxiety in emergency department patients: animal-assisted therapy, art therapy, and music therapy

The Emergency Department could be a stressful environment for patients. Anxiety and depression may develop due to the atmosphere, in addition to patients’ concerns for their health conditions. The condition could potentially affect the experience of the patient in the Emergency Department and the quality of life after the visit. Pharmacological therapy could be administered to the patients. However, adverse effects may be associated with the treatment. Less aggressive complementary treatment approaches are presented in this article. Controlled clinical trials and randomized pilot studies of different complementary therapies, including animal-assisted therapy, art therapy, and music therapy, were conducted. The complementary therapies discussed in this article showed positive outcomes for patients with hospital-induced anxiety and has no adverse effect reported. Hence, hospitals may consider introducing complementary therapies, such as those mentioned in this study, to improve the patients’ experiences in the Emergency Department