Problem: Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is emerging as a therapeutic healthcare intervention for a variety of health disorders, medical diagnoses and related conditions. The therapy is designed to promote improvement in human physical, social, emotional and/or cognitive functioning. Animal assisted activities provide opportunity for motivational, educational and/or recreational benefits using an animal that enhances quality of life. The introduction of AAT has been studied in long-term care facilities, but only recently has AAT been considered in acute care. Purpose and Scope: The purpose of this capstone project is to describe selected attitudes of nursing service staff members toward AAT within a selected healthcare organization before and after an AAT teaching intervention. The rationale for the project was that increased knowledge of the benefits of AAT in the acute care setting would foster interest in developing an AAT program within the healthcare facility. Goal: The goal of the project was to successfully implement an AAT teaching intervention for nursing service staff members within a selected healthcare organization. Objectives: First objective is to describe aggregate demographic characteristics of nursing service staff members toward AAT within a selected healthcare organization; second, to describe pre and post-intervention attitudes in nrusing service staff members regarding adverse impact of AAT within a selected healthcare organization; third, to describe pre- and post-intervention attitudes in nursing service staff members regarding organizational culture perspectives of AAT within a selected healthcare organization. Fourth objective is to describe pre- and post-intervention attitudes in nursing service staff members regarding dog acceptability of AAT within a selected healthcare organization; and fifth, to measure changes in attitudes in nursing service staff members regarding AAT before and after an AAT teaching intervention. Plan: Phase One: Conduct a needs assessment using a published evidence-based critique template. Phase Two: Design an AAT teaching intervention using an evidence-based medicine approach. Phase Three: Implement the evidence-based AAT teaching intervention for a projected sample of nursing services staff members at a selected acute care facility. Phase Four: Evaluate the level of attitudes toward AAT before and after the AAT teaching intervention using the Brisbane Animal Assisted Therapy Acceptability (BAATA) Test. Outcomes and Results: Using a descriptive-interventional research design, results of the pre-intervention and post-intervention measures revealed a modest mean score increase in selected attitudes of nursing service staff members toward AAT. Moreover, scaled reliability estimates based on internal consistency for the subscales improved signficance from Moody, King, and O’Rourke to this project’s pretest scores, and ultimately, this project’s posttest scores as follows: alpha = .87, .91, and .91 respectively for adverse impact; alpha = .70, .94, and .93 respectively for organizational culture; and alpha = ,78,.90, and .89 respectively for dog acceptability.
