Canine Assisted Therapy to Reduce Emergency Care Provider Stress

Canine Assisted Therapy to Reduce Emergency Care Provider Stress

The main study hypothesis is that emergency healthcare workers on shift who interact for 5 min with a therapy dog and handler will have lower perceived and manifested stress response compared with use of a time out that includes voluntary use of a coloring mandalas. The work will also address two exploratory hypotheses: The first is that salivary cortisol will correlate significantly with perceived stress and will increase from beginning to end of shift, and that exposure to a therapy dog will blunt this increase. The second exploratory hypothesis states that participants who interact with a therapy dog will display more empathic behaviors.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Inclusion criteria require that participants work full time as either a nurse or physician in the Eskenazi emergency department and are willing to consent to participation.
• Participants will include residents, faculty and nurses who work in the emergency department

Exclusion Criteria:

• Exclusions include any reported prior fear or adverse reaction to dogs