Dog Therapy for Staff in a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Project

AbstractBackground: Recent surveys of our pediatric emergency department staff showed a decrease in staff morale related to increased stress, indicating the need for intervention. Animal-assisted therapy has been shown to have multiple other positive effects in various populations including decreased stress and anxiety reduction. Our existing dog therapy program was unpredictable and inconsistent, resulting in limited staff involvement. Objectives: The purposes of this project were to determine whether a consistently offered dog therapy program in our pediatric emergency department would be utilized by staff and to elicit staff feedback on the program.Methods: A therapy dog was scheduled for one hour twice weekly for staff to visit when they were available. All staff in the ED were encouraged to attend these sessions.Results: Staff responses were collected via pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. The percentage of staff who were not able to visit the dogs pre-intervention was 33%, decreasing to 15% post-intervention. Prior to project initiation, 60% of staff indicated that dog therapy was not offered enough, compared to only 37% after project completion. Staff reported the program was a morale booster and added positivity to the unit. Barriers to participation and suggested improvements were identified.Conclusions: Staff were able to participate in dog therapy more often during the project than prior to project implementation, meeting the overall goal of providing more accessible dog therapy to staff. The program was well-received and has now become a standard offering for our emergency department staff.Keywords: animal assisted therapy, professional burnout, emergency departments, job-related stress, complementary therapy, compassion fatigue