Pet therapy program extends its paw to health care workers in Vancouver

A new form of stress and anxiety relief is now available for healthcare workers at some Vancouver hospitals. And it’s the cutest and cuddliest relief you could ask for.

Healthcare workers are getting a mental health boost through the Pet Therapy Program at BC Children’s and BC Women’s hospitals, which has been expanded to support staff after bringing smiles to patients and their families for years. The program is run by the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and PetSmart Charities Canada.

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Kelsey McCormick, a clinical resource nurse at the children’s hospital, told CityNews that it’s been “amazing” having the dogs around.

“The mood just shifts in the day, like, our staff look forward to it. The nurses just get a micro-break from the chaos, the busyness. It provides just this sense of quiet and peacefulness for them, which is so important and then they can reset, go back to work, do the job that they need to do,” she said.

Staff can now get access to pet therapy animals during monthly wellness events and weekly resiliency rounds. It comes at a time when healthcare workers across the province are stretched thin prompting calls from nurses and doctors for more funding and support.

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“These breaking points are really frequent, unfortunately, just with post-pandemic and staffing shortages and we want to retain our staff. They’re so amazing, they do their job so well and they give so much of themselves to this work and just having this dog come, everyone just lights up,” McCormick said.

Director of Patient Experience at the hospitals, Mary MacKillop says the program is a small thing that the organization can do to help staff feel a bit better about their work days.

“When we talk about patient and family care, without well, healthy, happy staff, we’re not contributing to care. So, it behooves us to support staff and clinicians in any way we can to feel the best they can be,” MacKillop said.

MacKillop says the program won’t be going anywhere, even when the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic eases, saying, “Seeing the value, we’ll keep this going forever.”

“I think our nurses’ dream is to have their own dedicated, 7th floor, staff dog. We have definitely discussed that before. ‘How can we make this happen?’ So safe to say that it’s a really important part of our floor and culture now,” McCormick said.