Evidence Based Practice: Animal Therapy



Evidence Based Practice: Animal TherapyWhitney AyersFerris State UniversityEvidence Based Practice: Animal TherapyNurses are generally thought of as compassionate, kind hearted people who often put their patient’s needs in front of their own. Although this is not always the case, the patient being cared for confides in the nurse with their greatest fears and concerns about their treatment. It is important for nurses to be held to high standards in order for this profession to continue to grow and develop. The article chosen is associated with another group, that may even be considered more compassionate and kind hearted than nurses. This article is about therapy animals being used with patients that have been diagnosed with advanced heart failure (Cole, Gawlinski, Steers, & Kotlerman, 2007). This three group randomized repeated-measures experiment was conducted using 76 adults that have all been diagnosed with advanced heart failure. Longitudinal analysis was used to compare the three groups at three times. One group was visited by a volunteer with a therapy dog for twelve minutes. One group was visited by a volunteer only for twelve minutes. The last group was the control group and these patients were given the usual standard care. There were many dependent variables in this study such as blood pressure, pulse rate, pulmonary artery pressure, right arterial pressure, state anxiety, and epinephrine and norepinephrine levels. These variables were used to determine the effects of animal assisted therapy on these patients (Cole, Gawlinski, Steers, & Kotlerman, 2007).The outcome of this study showed that compared with the control group, the patients with the volunteer and therapy dog showed a significant decrease in the variables used in this study. The volunteer-therapy dog group also had a significant decrease in the variables compared to the volunteer only group. After the intervention, the volunteer-therapy dog group showed the greatest decrease from baseline in state anxiety compared to the volunteer only and control group. It is the job of the nurse to ensure that each patient is receiving the best evidence based care possible, and studies like this one can show how simple things can make a difference in the care patients receive. It is important that each patients needs are cared for individually and based around what is going to make them the healthiest, the fastest. This study shows the correlation between patients with advanced heart failure and the use of animal therapy. This study is important to nursing because it shows that although most patients with diagnosed diseases or illnesses may require medical and pharmacological interventions, sometimes treatment can be improved with simple measures like animal therapy. This should be offered to patients as an option in their care. Some of the limitations of this study were that it was conducted over a very short time frame. Twelve minutes is a short opportunity to observe the patients and get accurate information. Also not every patient was receiving the same intervention or medication. The medications each patient was receiving could have some effect on the variable of this study. Also not everyone likes animals, so this intervention may not be right for every patient. It is important to find the patient’s needs and not cause them any unneeded stress. Animal therapy is not an option for every patient, if they don’t like animal or don’t have the means to care for an animal, then this therapy may cause more harm than good. I believe there is not a particular age group or population that animal therapy would not be helpful for, but it will be based on each individual patient. A nursing diagnosis for a patient with advanced heart failure would be chronic pain (Sparks & Taylor, 2010). An outcome for a patient with a diagnosis of chronic pain would be to use a self- report pain tool to identify current pain level and establish a comfort-functional goal. Interventions for this diagnosis would include assessing pain location, characteristics, and intensity with every report of pain. Assess patient for pain presence routinely at frequent intervals, and describe the adverse effects of persistent unrelieved pain. This article was related to nursing in the fact that it is the nurse’s job to give the best care possible to their patients. If some patients have better outcome when a therapy dog is used, then the nurse should take that into consideration when planning the care for their patients. Animal therapy might not be an option for every patient or in every circumstance, but listening to the patient’s needs is going to ensure that they are satisfied with the care they receive. ReferencesCole, K., Gawlinski, A., Steers, N., & Kotlerman, J. (2007, November). Animal-Assisted Therapy in Patients Hospitalized with Heart Failure. The American Journal of Critical Care, 16(6), 575-585.Sparks, S., & Taylor, C. (2010). Nursing diagnosis reference manual. New York, NY: Lippincott & Williams. ................
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