HR4RS stamp
Irene Vega
The main objective of this study was to determine the viability of the implementation of an Animal Assisted Therapy program in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the 12 de Octubre University Hospital in Madrid. The results of this project, published recently in the European Journal of Pediatrics, confirm that this type of program is feasible and safe and has a high degree of acceptance by participants, caregivers and health personnel. “This is the first study conducted in a PICU setting to demonstrate a reduction in pain, fear and anxiety. The satisfaction shown with this type of therapy is very high and the participants' recommendation to extend it to other patients supports its inclusion in the near future as part of the humanization and non-pharmacological therapy approach that is currently carried out in our PICUs," underlines Nuria Máximo, director of the Animals and Society Chair and co-author of the study.
To carry out this research, the scientific team designed a study where the effect of a program of dog-assisted therapy sessions was observed in minors between 3 and 17 years old admitted to the PICU of the 12 de Octubre University Hospital - between January and December. of 2019 - with an immune level that would allow it.
The collaboration between the Animals and Society Chair, the Hospital 12 de Octubre and the entity PsicoAnimal (now Logbook psychology and well-being) has been fundamental to form a multidisciplinary team, made up of intensive care doctors from the hospital, a psychologist, two occupational therapists experts in Interventions Assisted with Animals (IAA) and two dogs, Zenit and Senna. “For this study, a committee of experts designed a satisfaction survey that was delivered to patients, caregivers, IAA therapy technicians and other health personnel participating in the session, so more than one survey was collected for each intervention. To evaluate feasibility, staff satisfaction surveys were taken into account, as well as possible adverse effects that could occur during therapy, such as the mobilization of drains or tubes, falls, desaturation or delays in the administration of medication. ”explains Nuria Máximo.
After data collection and analysis, this study has also concluded that coordination between the medical team and IAA professionals is necessary when choosing patients and establishing objectives. Furthermore, it offers a new way to overcome the barriers at the time of its implementation in terms of concerns regarding infections, since it has been observed that they have been ruled out both in this study and in previous studies. “For the success of this type of therapy, teamwork is essential, with personnel involved in all humanization activities and experts in AAI therapy who guide the sessions and know the needs of the animals,” says the researcher.
This study is part of the project 'Colored Footprints: Assisted Therapy with Dogs in a PICU' of the Animal and Society Research Chair of the URJC, funded by the Dingonatura Foundation.