Nurses need pet therapy, too!

Every once in a while I will see one of our dog “volunteers” making his or her way upstairs to bring happiness to patients and I sneak a quick scratch behind the ears. That always makes me smile.

The hospital environment can be so sterile and the presence of man’s best friend is such a nice distraction. It got me thinking that maybe we could have pet therapy for hospital staff!

Wouldn’t it be awesome to cuddle up with a purring cat or a snuggly dog on your break? I think it would help to de-stress staff and make them a lot happier to go back on the floor.

Once, a patient was admitted who didn’t have anyone to care for his puppy who was in the car. Well, I couldn’t allow the dog to sit in a car all by himself so I smuggled him into the back offices (far, far away from patient care areas) and we kept him for a couple hours until someone finally came and picked up the dog. It was so fun for the few hours that we had a ‘department mascot’. Staff kept sneaking back to the offices to see the cutey and play with him. Every person left with a smile on their face (and yes, they were all reminded to wash their hands before returning to patient care!) and I have to say, I think the puppy was sad to leave us!!

Maybe one day when I finally get my cappuccino machine in the staff lounge I can convince the higher ups to let us have a puppy too. We promise we will clean  up after it!!!