Holistic Nursing: Animal Assisted Therapy Essay Example
Holistic Nursing: Animal Assisted Therapy Essay Example

Holistic Nursing: Animal Assisted Therapy Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (881 words)
  • Published: September 22, 2016
  • Type: Research Paper
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Holistic healing and holistic nursing are quickly becoming a welcome change as compared to traditional medical procedures. Traditional medicine focuses on one area of the body that is ill--while holistic healing treats the body, mind, and spirit as a whole in addition to looking at the individual’s diet, environment, and relationships around them. This holistic environment may utilize pet therapy as a form of holistic healing, with the ill individual forming a special healing relationship with animals who are specifically trained for therapy.

Discussion According to Wendy Harris’s August 2006 article, “Take Two Herbal Tonics and Call Me in the Morning,” a 2002 health survey from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for The Health Statistics has found that 36% of U. S. adults use some form

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of holistic medicine, with 62% of U. S. adults using prayer in addition to holistic medicine.

This percentage is said to have “created a billion-dollar industry—alternative medicine is the largest growing sector of the healthcare industry. Holistic therapies are said to be developing right along with this huge growth, even though at a slower pace, with animal therapy becoming a major player. The Center to Study Human-Animal Relationships and Environments at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was formed to “create opportunities to acquire, disseminate, and apply knowledge about the relationship between animals, humans, and their shared environment so that choices improve the quality of life for all. ” (University of Minnesota, CENSHARE, 2005).

According to a CENSHARE report by Carol Ouhl in 2007, Therapy dogs or therapy animals is a generic name

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given to an animal once it has been specifically evaluated and registered with one of the national organizations that operate in this capacity. There are two distinctly different applications for therapy dogs. Therapy dogs do NOT operate as specially trained assistance or service dogs that open doors; turn on lights; assist the hearing or visually impaired. This is another higher level of training and assessment.

Therapy dogs do NOT have federally granted legal access to public transportation, airplane cabins or public buildings as is afforded to service dogs. Many different types of animals participate in both AAA and AAT. According to this article, holistic nursing with therapy assisted animals would fall into the AAT division as the pet is used as “a treatment modality in a written, individualized treatment plan with specific, documented goals,” as compared to the AAA where volunteers take pets to the hospitals, nursing homes, and so on (Ouhl, 2007).

In Nurse. Com, stories show how therapy assisted animals are working with severely ill individuals when people cannot reach them regarding emotions and pain. Cathryn Domrose, 2002, wrote an article titled, “Puppy Power,” where it is being discovered by hospitals and nurses that the “benefits of animal-assisted activities and therapy” is amazing. According to the article, the nurses involved are from many backgrounds—researchers, program coordinators, handlers, or frontline caregivers—with a history of 20 years with huge results.

One of the hospitals cited was in the Children’s Hospital in Denver, CO, in the neurosurgery, orthopedics and neurotrauma rehabilitation departments, where the first program to be used with animal therapy was called Prescription , and was initiated to bring together children

and pets in order to see if it was possible for them to form bonds to help the children face the trauma they were going through.

Several researches are being done, mainly due to the high growth rate of successful animal assisted therapy in health care facilities and chronic diseases area. One was done by M. L. Jofre, in 2005, at the Pediatric Department, University of Chili, where it was found that this therapy was considered as a “novel interventional program with important benefits in the management of patients with chronic diseases and prolonged hospitalization” (Jofre, 2007).

A study done by Gagnon et al in the 2005 Canada Oncology Nursing journal looks at children who have been diagnosed with cancer, whose stressors have lead to adverse biopsychosocial effects. This research body formed an animal assisted therapy group called “A Magical Dream” which began with a nursing initiative in 1999, and focused on “documenting the observed connection between participating in the program, quality of care and satisfaction of participating parents and nurses” (Gagnon et al, 2005). The research focus was to

It appears that dog-assisted therapy may contribute to alleviate psychological distress in children and parents, facilitate their adaptation to the therapeutic process, and promote their well-being while hospitalized -- as well-being is inconsistent with the state of emotional distress, animal-assisted therapy may be a beneficial intervention to alleviate distress in the child, his family and caregivers. Conclusion It is said by researchers that the issue of animal assisted therapy is based on applied science, with this science solving a human problem by using an interdisciplinary approach with these specifically trained animals.

justify">With traditional nursing utilizing these animals, it is being demonstrated through research and actual case studies that people respond to animals in a manner that is nothing short of miraculous. The traditional nursing field is an added complement to implement this therapy in order to assess the patient and their response to the animal in a highly clinical scientific manner to further the research in this subject, as compared to less scientific methods with questionable results.

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