Canine Assisted Therapy to Reduce Emergency Care Provider Stress

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Anxiety; Stress

• Registration Number: NCT03628820
• Lead Sponsor: Indiana University

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-05-17
• Study First Submitted: 2018-07-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-08-09
• Study First Posted: 2018-08-14
• Primary Completion: 2019-08-09
• Study Completion: 2019-08-09
• Status Verified: 2020-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-02-12
• Last Update Posted: 2020-02-17

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 119

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
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

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Indiana University; 🇺🇸 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States