Boyd, Aimee

Ambulance Research Repository

The Effect of Dog Therapyon Ambulance Service Staff BurnoutIntroduction• NHS Trusts are keen to improve staff welfare• Ambulance Staff have the highest rates of suicide• Small sample of nurses - 76.6% (strongly) agree pet therapy would  stress and  wellbeing. (Stallter & Gustin 2021).• Qualitative research with health care professionals utilising therapy dog services reported lower levels of stress, on stress scales and verbal scoring systems.(Kline et al, 2020).There is no evidence relating to therapy dogs and burnout in ambulance service staff – (And there still isn’t!)Conclusion• The success of the therapy dogs project is the fundamental flaw in this research project – too few people met the inclusion criteria so there was an inadequate number of participants.• Repeat in an area where therapy dogs are newly introduced• Redesign the study so participants complete all study activities in one sessionMethods• Observational feasibility study of existing dog therapy service.• Recruitment target of 20 participants• 2 cohorts of staff• Face-to-face patient contact• Remote patient contact• Participants to approach research team• Participants sent electronic consent form• Complete a Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) as baseline and a follow up after 8 weeks of dog therapy.Eligibility Criteria• Taking part in YAS dog therapy scheme• Participated in less than 2 previous dog therapy sessions prior to enrolment• Working in a role with patient contact (remote or face-to-face)Planned Outcome Measures• Mean difference for each section of the CBI between baseline and follow-up. • Number of times engaged in dog therapy• Withdrawal rate• Effect of dog therapy on ambulance turnaround times• Sensitivity analysis for those attending ≤5 or ≥6 sessions. • Descriptive statistics for demographic data collected.Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov - NCT05438745, Trial Sponsor – Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Supervisor: Richard Pilbery, Funded by NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Internship, Ethics Approvals – Sheffield Hallam University, IRAS – 316542Thanks to NIHR CRN Y&H Research Champions PPI Group and Pets as TherapyKline, J., VanRyzin, K., Davis, J., Parra, J., Todd, M., & Shaw, L. et al. (2020). Randomized Trial of Therapy Dogs Versus Deliberative Coloring (Art Therapy) to Reduce Stress in Emergency Medicine Providers. Academic Emergency Medicine, 27(4), 266-275. doi: 10.1111/acem.13939Stallter, C, & Gustin, T. (2021). Evaluating Advanced Practice Nurse’ Burnout and Potential helping Modalities. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 17, 1297-1299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2021.07.003Aimée Boyd aimee.boyd@nhs.net, Clinical advisor & Paramedic, Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustResults• Recruitment n=14, baseline survey n=7, follow up survey n=0OverallMean CBI Score (SD)Client Related BurnoutWork Related BurnoutPersonal BurnoutOverall53.6 (20.6) 62.2 (11.6)57.1 (16.7)57.7 (15.0)Median CBI Score (IQR)Client Related BurnoutWork Related BurnoutPersonal BurnoutOverall54.2 (72.9–35.4) 64.3 (67.9–55.4)60.0 (70.0–45.0)62.3 (67.0–47.8)

The effect of dog therapy on ambulance service staff burnout

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The effect of dog therapy on ambulance service staff burnout

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