Dog therapy program prescribed to patients

Zoë Dehmer
Staff Writer

Dr. Jones is just the kind of doctor you want to see. When he and his team come to visit, he makes patients feel comforted and relaxed, and occasionally he will perform a miracle to help them get better.

At less than 10 inches tall, weighing about 10 pounds, Dr. Jones is a Pekingese therapy dog at the VCU Medical Center. He once visited a patient who had been in an accident and hadn’t moved since he entered the hospital; doctors were afraid the patient’s condition wasn’t going to improve when they prescribed Dr. Jones.

“(The nurse) put the dog down on the bed and said, ‘Sir, there’s a dog here to visit you,’ and he raised his hand to try and pet the dog,” said Denice Ekey, program coordinator for the Center for Human-Animal Interaction.

Amid the often unfamiliar, sterile environment of the hospital, patients can find comfort in a furry friend when therapy dogs come to visit.

VCU’s Center for Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI) provides a therapy dog program called Dogs on Call. Volunteers and their dogs roam the hospital halls visiting patients that need to see a friendly face.

A therapy dog named Moose visited VCU Medical Center patient Jesse Crabtree during his recovery in the Rehabilitation and Research Center. Photo by Zoë Dehmer
A therapy dog named Moose visited VCU Medical Center patient Jesse Crabtree during his recovery in the Rehabilitation and Research Center. Photo by Zoë Dehmer

CHAI was founded in 2001 in VCU’s School of Medicine with a mission of improved human health and wellbeing through animal interaction. Dogs on Call, the dog therapy program, is offered through the hospital’s clinical services.

For a dog to become certified for Dogs on Call, it has to pass certain temperament and obedience tests. Within 24 hours of each visit, the dog has to be bathed and groomed to avoid bringing in unwanted bacteria to the hospital.

Dogs and their owners can volunteer for the program to help patients around the VCU Medical Center. “It’s actually a very realistic thing and it helps a lot of people,” said rising fourth-year VCU medical student Jessica Hupe.

Hupe has been volunteering with her golden retriever, Mona, for the past several years while in school to become a doctor with a specialty in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She plans to continue volunteering throughout the remainder of medical school and come graduation and hopes to work in a hospital where she can be involved in a similar program.

“I think it really helps (patients) a lot to have something or someone there that doesn’t talk to them and try to explain what’s going on with their illness or how they should be feeling, but just kind of chills out with them and understands without words. I think it’s really important for their healing,” Hupe said.

Patient visits with dogs like Mona, however, do more than just cheer people up. In addition to facilitating Dogs on Call through VCU, CHAI conducts research about the physical and mental effects visits with a therapy dog can have on a person.

Hupe said that as a student, participating in the program is just as therapeutic for her as it is for patients.

“I think it’s mentally changed my perspective on everything,” she said. “I think it’s made me a more well-rounded person to have other things to focus on outside of being a medical student. … At home, Mona is as good therapy to me as she is to patients when I take her into the hospital. I’m a busy person, but definitely a happy person.”

Kelley Snowa, a research associate for the center, explained that a big part of the mission of CHAI is analyzing those effects.

One study that CHAI has completed was research analyzing the effects of human-dog interaction on healthcare professionals in the workplace. The study showed that as little as five minutes interacting with a therapy dog was comparable to 20 minutes rest as far as reducing stress while working.

“So that’s really powerful if you think about it,” Snowa said. “Nursing is obviously a stressful job, you’re on the go a lot, so if you can just take five minutes … and interact with a dog, you’re going to be less stressed going on to the next patient.”

One current investigation is collaboration with the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics in the VCU student survey “Spit for Science.” The purpose of the study is to determine what factors contribute to how well students do during their college years and beyond. As a part of the survey, CHAI has added questions about pet ownership.

“We’re going to be looking at the data as a whole and contrasting those things with things like alcohol use, depression, and family support,” Snowa said.

Lauren Nutile, a first-year medical student at the VCU School of Medicine, said the program partially influenced her decision to come to the university.

“VCU was actually the only one that had an animal therapy program. I love animals so I thought that was awesome. It actually played a little into my decision to come here,” Nutile said.

Since being accepted at VCU, Nutile has become president of a newly formed student-run group for CHAI that makes it easier for medical students to get involved with the program.

Nutile has plans for the group to become more involved with the research and host fundraisers to buy supplies for volunteers like hand sanitizer for before and after they enter the rooms, and leashes and vests for the dogs. She also hopes to show Virginia’s state legislators that they should throw the dogs a bone and support the program.

“In the summer we’ll go over to the Capital and advocate for funding for animal therapy programs,” Nutile said.

Nutile said that one of the most rewarding parts of being involved is getting to shadow volunteers and their dogs in the hospital.

“The patients absolutely light up when you come into their room,” Nutile said. “They get more animated; they like to talk about their own pets and ask about the dog that’s there.”

Nutile said hospital faculty members get very excited when they see the dog team coming too. “They all stop what they’re doing and come and say ‘I just need five minutes to pet the dog.’”

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