Dog visits to hospital relax staff, patients
After a particularly busy or emotional shift in the emergency department, you can sense the fatigue among colleagues.
It can be challenging to see people on the worst days of their lives. You can’t help but feel the pain of someone who has just been told that loved ones
have died or that they have a terminal diagnosis.
And it can be more challenging to take care of a patient if they are under the influence of drugs and alcohol, which frequently occurs in emergency department patients. There often are complex social issues in addition to the medical concerns that make their problems harder to resolve.
The emergency department is the safety net of the medical system, but that kind of care can be taxing to the psyche and mental health of health care workers.
We are a big team that pulls together to help each other. Whether it is providing a co-worker a shoulder to cry on, a box of tissues or a fresh cup of coffee, we support each other.
At times, we also use humor to deal with things that we often see that no one could ever imagine. You have to make light of some things; otherwise it would just be too much. We find a way to deal with the stress and move on.
When the shift ends, you go home to rest and refill your cup. You have to put the day behind you and get ready for your next shift because patients will
continue to need your care.
Part of what helps me to decompress after work is going home to my family and my dog. The unconditional love from a pet makes everything better. I realized how much this affects me during a recent visit from a pet therapy dog in the emergency department.
OhioHealth has a program called Love on a Leash in which volunteers take their pets to visit patients and staff members.
Melissa, a hospital volunteer, brought her dog Lucy, a friendly yellow lab, to hang out with the hospital staff. Lucy came running up to me as soon as I put my hand out to greet her.
As I pet her and she licked my arms, I realized that my stress had vanished. I was relaxed, smiling and felt really happy. After a few minutes, I realized I had to get back to work and I watched as Lucy greeted my co-workers. I noticed that they wore the same smile and projected the same joy and sense of calm that I had.
Lucy spent about an hour in the emergency department and then went on to the next unit to meet with the staff members and patients there. Melissa took great pride in getting Lucy bathed and ready for her job.
I saw how beneficial pet therapy was to one of my sickest patients several years ago. This young man had been hospitalized for several months, and it seemed as if he suffered every complication possible. Just when he was starting to heal from one illness, he would be hit by something else.
I felt particularly sympathetic to this patient because he had been so healthy and ultimately lost several of his limbs. I feared he would suffer from severe depression.
Once he was out of the intensive care unit, he started having regular visits from one of the therapy dogs.
The chemistry between the two was immediate. The smile I saw on his face was the first genuine smile I had seen him make. As the weeks passed and my patient went through rehabilitation and physical therapy, I know that his frequent visits with his pet therapy dog were critical to his healing and progress.
He had to learn to walk again and his motivation to walk was fueled by his goal to walk with his dog. And nearly a year after he first became ill, my patient walked with his prosthetic limb, with his therapy dog proudly at his side.
Physicians realize that a visit from a therapy animal helps their patients in several ways, including lessening anxiety, unhappiness and pain. Further research on the topic of patient interactions with animals shows that there is an increase several hormones in the human brain, including endorphins, dopamine and oxytocin.
These hormones play a role in pain and stress relief, blood pressure regulation and happiness.
Several physicians and veterinarians started studying these phenomena several decades ago and subsequently developed formalized training programs for pets and their owners to become therapy dogs.
The biggest concern people have about therapy animals is sanitation and safety. Hospitals and nursing facilities that allow pet therapy have stringent rules that ensure the animals are clean and properly vaccinated.
Additionally, the animals must be trained and exhibit good behavior. There have been no reports to the Centers for Disease Control of any patients acquiring an infection from a therapy animal.
While research is still ongoing to more fully describe all the benefits a pet can bring to your life, much of the benefit seems fairly obvious. If you have a pet, take an extra minute to pet it and realize how relaxed you become and how much better you feel. drerikakubemd@gmail.com