Animal-Assisted Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit

This study utilises a prospective, single center, observational cohort survey design. Potential participants will be screened using ‘Metavision’ (the ICU online patient portal system) to determine patient eligibility. Eligible patients are those who have been admitted longer than 72 hours and likely to stay within the ICU for a further 24 hours. Screening will occur prior to the therapy dog visit, with researchers assessing patient eligibility. Visitation of the therapy dogs is scheduled to occur weekly, with the specific day depending on the availability of the Delta volunteer. Eligible patients and family members (as determined by the inclusion/exclusion criteria) will be invited to participate in the research. Participant involvement will be voluntary, and completion of the assessment tools will be taken as consent. The participant will be given an explanation of the study by the researcher, provided with the Participant Information Sheet and asked if they wish to be involved. Participants agreeing to be involved in the study will be asked to complete the Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A) prior to the therapy dog visit, and immediately after the therapy dog visit occurs. Researchers, or the bedside nurse, will assist participants in completing the scale where required. Participants will continue to have weekly therapy dog visits and will be required to complete the VAS-A each week, prior to and after the therapy dog visit until discharge from ICU or up to 90 days. Patient care will not be affected and all procedures and care will be able to continue as normal. In addition to the VAS-A, the patients will be asked to complete the Numerical Pain Rating Scale. A CRF has been created to collect a de-identified data set of patients, which consists of questions regarding to age, sex, length of ICU stay, ventilation status (ventilated/not ventilated), heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and minute ventilation; sedation and analgesia requirements and pain score. The physiological assessment will be recorded on the CRF pre and post the therapy dog visit. It is important to note that this physiological data is routinely and continuously monitored for all ICU patients. A CRF has been created for family members to identify their age, sex and length of stay for their family member. The Canberra Health Services ICU has a service agreement with the Delta therapy dog organisation. There are 4 service agreements with 4 Delta dog teams that visit the ICU. There are weekly visits where the team will visit for a duration of 1.5 hours. The handler will be present with the dog at all times. The handlers have all had orientation to ICU and are approved to visit in ICU by the Canberra Health service volunteer and infrastructure program. They are accompanied by one of the research team members, where the data is collected. The patients and families are screened before the visit to assess eligibility. The dog visits the patient and family at the bedside where the visit generally takes an average of 15-20 minutes or what the patient can tolerate. The Delta Therapy dog program in the Canberra Health Services ICU was set up prior to the study commencing. Therefore, participants would have received a visit from the Delta dog team in the absence of this study.