All About A.D.A.P.T. - Assisted Dog and Pony Therapy in a Outpatient Free Standing Multidisciplinary Ambulatory Care Center

Date
June 26, 2023

Purpose: Humans have an innate drive to connect with other living things. There is a long-standing history of turning to animals for improving health and well-being. Modern research indicates that the human-animal interaction can decrease stress, lower blood pressure, and increase social connection (Fine, 2019). Horses and dogs are incredibly perceptive when sensing human emotions and observing or participating in interactions. They can provide immediate, honest, and non-threatening feedback, which can help guide and enhance treatment. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is directed by a licensed psychologist or mental health provider with specialized experience. Interactions with horses or dogs can provide patients opportunities to face fears and build confidence, learn and practice healthier ways of relating to others, and feel more comfortable working with their healthcare team.
Description: The ADAPT (assisted dog and pony therapy) program is a first-of-its kind model to incorporate animals into therapeutic treatment planning for patients at Nemours Children’s Health – Jacksonville, an outpatient free-standing multidisciplinary ambulatory care center. This program addresses a variety of children's mental and emotional health needs, including anxiety, anger issues, grief and loss, behavioral and family relationship concerns, communication difficulties, depression, and emotional adjustment to medical issues.
The ADAPT program was established as a three-year implementation science research project in partnership between Nemours Children’s Health and the University of North Florida to create ADAPT serves as a living laboratory for research in evidence-based practices incorporating animal-assisted therapy into a traditional medical healthcare setting. The World Health Organization promotes the use of implementation science methodology in research for new and innovative programing in systems that are often experienced as highly resistant to change, e.g., in educational institutions and healthcare organizations (WHO, 2019).
Evaluation/outcome: This poster presentation will provide learners with a foundation in the principles of implementation science research practices in animal-assisted therapy; strategies for building collaborations among healthcare organizations, university systems, and the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) International, and equine-assisted services (EAS) programs. Strategies specific to provider education, organization policy/procedure development, and program approval will be reviewed. Funding-specific strategies will also be presented, as this program is 100% donor-funded. Finally, several ADAPT program research projects will be briefly outlined: determining organizational readiness for animal-assisted therapy implementation (2021) and the ADAPT pre-pilot procedure testing (2021). The layered approach to research and the future research agenda for the ADAPT program will also be revealed.

Learning Objective

  • After completing this learning activity, the participant will be able to assess innovations being used by other professionals in the specialty and evaluate the potential of implementing the improvements into practice.

Speaker

Speaker Image for Jennifer Pfieffer
Jennifer Pfieffer, MSN, APRN, PCNS-BC, ESMHL

Related Products

Thumbnail for The Institution of a Standardized Telephone Triage Course
The Institution of a Standardized Telephone Triage Course
Purpose: Within our ambulatory primary care clinics, planning for the ever-changing needs of our patients and communities is a priority of leadership and clinical education. Ambulatory care telephone triage is one of the organization's most rapidly growing and changing specialties…
Thumbnail for Appreciative Inquiry: Employee Engagement and Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care Setting
Appreciative Inquiry: Employee Engagement and Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care Setting
Purpose of project: To promote joy at work for clinical nursing staff and explore the impact of appreciative inquiry (AI) techniques approaches on satisfaction and engagement by applying evidence-based practice…
Thumbnail for Using Modern Applications for Clinical Advice in Primary Care Pediatrics
Using Modern Applications for Clinical Advice in Primary Care Pediatrics
Purpose/background: Our purpose is to provide our pediatric primary care patients and their parents access to a modern HIPAA compliant secure triage text platform as an alternative method to reach triage RNs for clinical advice…
Thumbnail for White-Bagging vs. Free Med vs. Buy & Bill: An Interprofessional Process Improvement Initiative for Neurological Ambulatory Care Infusions
White-Bagging vs. Free Med vs. Buy & Bill: An Interprofessional Process Improvement Initiative for Neurological Ambulatory Care Infusions
Background: Due to a lack of financial clearance, patients needed to be rescheduled for neurological infusions causing a delay in treatments. 25% had to either be rescheduled or given a free dose paid for by the hospital…
Privacy Policy Update: We value your privacy and want you to understand how your information is being used. To make sure you have current and accurate information about this sites privacy practices please visit the privacy center by clicking here.