Therapy Dogs and the Impact on Employees in the Pediatric Medical Setting

Author

Laine FoithFollow

Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

Spring 5-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Social Work

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Wayne Paris

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Amy Kalb

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Bonnie Jenkins

Abstract

More than 40% of nurses reported experiencing significant burnout. Burnout is characterized by disengagement, cynicism, negative views of personal accomplishment and ability, and emotional exhaustion. The healthcare providers that experience burnout can possibly expect a decrease in ability to recognize/report errors, increase of negative feelings toward the patient, and decrease levels of patient satisfaction (Ernest, 2014). One of the ways Schub (2015) suggested to regulate burnout for employees was to provide psychosocial support to colleagues to reduce stress. This study is one of the first attempts to bridge the gap between the unknown correlation between qualitative and quantitative benefits of dog therapy. Our hypothesis is that regular interaction with the therapy dog, will improve employee productivity, job satisfaction, and reduce employees perceived stress. Our research question is “Does regular interaction with a therapy dog positively impact employees?” Although statistical significance was found with regards to the therapy dog’s involvement, the risk of a Type I Error exceeded the number of factors identified. An analysis of the potential factors associated with the findings and limitations of the work will be presented.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Foith, Laine, "Therapy Dogs and the Impact on Employees in the Pediatric Medical Setting" (2017). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 65.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/65