Anxiety, Stress
Conditions
Keywords
Stress, Anxiety, Cortisol, Therapy, Dog, Coloring, Mandala
Brief summary
The main study hypothesis is that emergency healthcare workers on shift who interact for 5 min with a therapy dog and handler will have lower perceived and manifested stress response compared with use of a time out that includes voluntary use of a coloring mandalas. The work will also address two exploratory hypotheses: The first is that salivary cortisol will correlate significantly with perceived stress and will increase from beginning to end of shift, and that exposure to a therapy dog will blunt this increase. The second exploratory hypothesis states that participants who interact with a therapy dog will display more empathic behaviors.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALDog Therapy
5 minutes spent with therapy dog during shift
BEHAVIORALColoring
5 minutes spend coloring mandalas during shift
Sponsors
Indiana University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Inclusion criteria require that participants work full time as either a nurse or physician in the Eskenazi emergency department and are willing to consent to participation. * Participants will include residents, faculty and nurses who work in the emergency department
Exclusion criteria
* Exclusions include any reported prior fear or adverse reaction to dogs
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cortisol change | 4 hours | Time and location of shift and times of each measurement. T1: As soon as practicable at shift start: Baseline perceived stress scale and anxiety scale (shown below) and approximately 100 uL of saliva using a commercial kit (Salimetrics® 1-3002 (5PK 1-3002-5)). Saliva is collected \> 10 min after any eating or drinking. T2: Repeat perceived stress scale, anxiety scale and saliva approximately 15-30 min after exposure to the dog and handler or the coloring. Scale 0 to 10 0=balanced mood 2=slight fear and worry 4= mild fear and worry 6=moderate worry, physical agitation 8= strong agitation, pacing, can't sit still 10= out of control behavior, self-harm |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed