Implementation feasibility of animal-assisted therapy in a pediatric intensive care unit: effectiveness on reduction of pain, fear, and anxiety

Abstract

Abstract Animal-assisted therapies are an innovative strategy within health care humanization initiatives, and they could play a role in the reduction of pain or anxiety. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing animal-assisted therapy in a pediatric intensive care unit and its effectiveness for the reduction of pain, fear, and anxiety. A prospective, quasi-experimental study of animal-assisted therapy was designed in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre of Madrid, from January 2019 to December 2019. The study sample included patients who had been admitted to the unit and were over 3 years old. Satisfaction surveys were collected from the patients, family, and health personnel involved. Physiological variables and the level of pain (visual analog scale or Wong-Baker scale), fear (Child Medical Fear Scale), and anxiety (modified Yale Preoperatory Anxiety Scale) were evaluated before and after each session. Any existence of adverse events was recorded. A total of 74 therapy sessions were performed on 61 patients. All sessions were completed without any adverse effects. A total of 164 surveys were collected, providing an overall project rating of 9.69 out of a possible 10. The survey comments were found to be positive in most cases. No differences were found in the physiological variables measured before and after each session. There was a statistically significant decrease in pain, fear, and anxiety levels (p < 0.01).   Conclusion: The implementation of an animal-assisted therapy project in a pediatric intensive care unit is feasible and safe and has a high degree of acceptance among both participants and healthcare staff. Animal-assisted therapy is effective for the reduction of pain, fear, and anxiety, and therefore, it could be considered an adjunct to non-pharmacological therapy. What is Known:• Animal assisted therapies (AAT) are an innovative strategy that could be beneficial to help pediatrics patients cope with admission difficulties and could even play a role in reducing pain, anxiety and/or delirium.• To date there are not studies to analyze the effectiveness of AAT in the field of Pediatric Intesive Care. What is New:• Our study confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation of an AAT in the field of Pediatric Intensive Care with a high degree of acceptance by participants, caregivers and healthcare personnel.• AAT demonstrated a reduction in pain, fear and anxiety in pediatrics patients admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.