Animal Magnetism: The Power of Pet Therapy
Anne Federwisch
Monday December 3, 2007
Diana Potts, RNC, MSN (left), and her therapy dog, Kola, pay a much-anticipated visit to Jimmie Johnson, a resident at the VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City, Ore.
(PHOTO BY TIM TIDBALL PHOTOGRAPHY)
If it's Wednesday, Diana Potts, RNC, MSN, and Kola, her Siberian husky/German shepherd mix, have places to go. Although Potts works as a part-time classroom and clinical instructor in the nursing assistant program at Rogue Community College in Grants Pass, Ore., she dedicates Wednesdays to pet therapy. She and Kola (whose name is Native American for four-legged friend) visits Jackson House, an assisted living community in Talent, Ore., and the VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City, Ore., from which Potts recently retired as an infection control and employee health nurse."While I was at the VA helping the staff write policies and procedures for pet therapy, I saw what an amazing impact the dogs had on the residents," Potts says. "A lot of their residents have psychiatric disabilities. It was amazing how patients opened up. Angry patients became calm. Withdrawn patients became more communicative. So I decided I wanted to do this work with my dog."Kola earned his certification through Flanders, N.J.-based Therapy Dogs International, and Potts began to bring him to visit staff and patients at the VA. She recalls seeing angry patients storm into the nursing area; "The patients would see Kola lying on the floor outside my office, and they would immediately soften," Potts says. "The anger would drain from their faces. They would sit on the floor with him, talk baby talk with him, and pet him."Potts recommends a conservative approach to launching any pet therapy program. She says facilities must have procedures in place to address infection control, risk management, and liability. Decision makers also must determine which areas of their facilities will be off-limits to pet visitors and establish bathing, grooming and vaccination requirements. She encourages nurses to remain steadfast as they navigate the initial hurdles involved in establishing new pet therapy programs.Canine Power
Lillian Torres, an RN at the Heart Hospital of New Mexico in Albuquerque, understands the power of pet therapy because she has seen it work a miracle. "There's something magical that happens," the telemetry nurse says. She will never forget one patient who made a therapeutic breakthrough, thanks to a French bulldog named Spud."I was totally flummoxed about how I was going to reach this man," Torres recalls. He had sustained a cardiac event in his home and he lay helpless for several days before help arrived. Severely dehydrated, his body had shut down — and so had his emotions.So when Bonnie Hughes arrived on her unit with Spud, Torres asked her to visit this patient first. With tears in her eyes, Torres recounts how Spud snuggled into the man's armpit and put his head on his shoulder. And the patient, who had been silent, began talking to the bulldog."The man started telling him stories," Hughes recalls. "He told him, 'If you were my dog, I would take you to the park and throw sticks for you. And if you were my dog, you'd get to sleep in my bed all the time. And if you were my dog ....'"The man opened up to Torres after Spud's visit. For the first time, they were able to discuss his medications, his plan of care, and his discharge options. "It was powerful," she says. "I'm a very good nurse, but patients have to be engaged. If they are engaged in their rehab, they get better."Pet therapy is a tool like chaplains or music therapy," Torres continues. "It taps into a method of healing we don't understand with our Western care model. I have seen it work in the worst cases."Hughes is a tester/observer for Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Therapy Dogs, Inc. In this role, she evaluates dogs for their appropriateness for pet therapy, gauging how they respond to people, other animals, medical equipment, etc. Some dogs need to receive additional training before they can be placed in the program. "It is difficult to turn dogs away because it's like telling people they have an ugly baby," she says.Hughes contends any facility that wants to launch a pet therapy program should use registered therapy dogs. "Having the support, knowledge, and insurance offered through registered therapy dog programs is important," she says.Thanks to her participation in a registered therapy dog program, Hughes could recognize that after the touching visit between Spud and Torres' patient, the dog was exhausted and needed to go home rather than visit other patients that day.More than horsing around
Dogs are not the only creatures involved in animal-assisted therapy. Therapeutic horseback riding — or hippotherapy — can help clients of all ages. For the last eight years, Connie Merritt, RN, BSN, PHN, has volunteered at the J. F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.Merritt sees how equine therapy helps the center's 220 weekly clients, who range from toddlers to octogenarians. Their medical conditions include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, developmental and cognitive disabilities, and autism. "Kids say their first words or take their first steps at the center — it's that miraculous," says Merritt.Each client is evaluated by a specially trained physical therapist who determines how to best use the horses to help achieve therapeutic goals such as improving posture, balance, mobility, and function. Goals center on facilitating cognitive, psychological, behavioral, and communication skills. Therapists select horses carefully to elicit desired results. Volunteers assist by leading horses as directed or walking at the horses' side as a safety precaution."The horses' hips work exactly like human hips — front, back, sideways, and rotation," Merritt says. "There's something magical about your body being shown how to walk through the motions of the horse's hips." Merritt knows this from first-hand experience. When she had hip surgery, she was back on her horse within nine weeks. "I rehabbed myself on my own horse," she says. She currently is training her horse, Maggie Rose, in animal-assisted therapy.Merritt advises pediatric nurses in particular to recommend equine therapy for their patients. "Nurses should know equine therapy makes disabled children just like any other kids," she says. "In fact, they might be doing things other kids can't do. Even with autism and learning disabilities, parents report that after these sessions, kids can concentrate and do their homework. Nurses need to know this is a modality that is so different it might just help."Anne Federwisch is a freelance writer. To comment, e-mail editorNW@nurseweek.com.ResourcesTherapy Dogs, Inc.
www.therapydogs.comTherapy Dogs, International
www.tdi-dog.orgJ. F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center
www.sheacenter.org/therapeutic_riding/index.htmlNorth American Riding for the Handicapped Association, Inc.
www.narha.org
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