The Effects of Dog Therapy on Ambulance Staff Burnout Scores.

Problem During the COVID 19 pandemic, NHS staff have become increasingly burned out. Mental health is the leading cause of staff sickness and absence in the NHS. Ambulance trusts have the highest rates of sickness across all NHS professions. Reduced staffing levels directly impacts service delivery. Staff struggling with poor mental health are more likely to make errors, have reduced empathy, and patients have lower patient satisfaction.

The Solution? Dog therapy is used in hospital settings around the world for patient benefit and staff welfare.

Evidence suggests dog therapy improves mood and reduces anxiety. Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has a small, but established dog therapy scheme, organised by the health and wellbeing team.

This research aims to observe if dog therapy affects symptoms of burnout in YAS staff. We will use two sets of staff:

Patient facing staff Staff with remote patient contact

What will participants need to do?

Participants will be given a Copenhagen Burnout Inventory - a questionnaire focusing on three factors:

Personal burnout Work related burnout Client related burnout

Burnout will be measured in 4 categories; no/low, moderate, high and severe burnout.

The questionnaire will be completed at the beginning and end of 8 weeks of dog therapy.

• Some optional demographic questions
• Number of sessions attended
• Engagement with occupational health services
• Dog Ownership

We will calculate the difference in severity of burnout between baseline and after 8 weeks of dog therapy.

A PPI group has been consulted on methodology, wording of plain English summary and the dissemination plan.

This research will be distributed to all interested participants, published in an appropriate journal presented at conferences, and presented in the ICA dissemination event.