Therapy dogs can help relieve pain in the emergency room.

Therapy dogs can help relieve pain in the emergency room.
Therapy dogs have long visited nursing homes and schools - even disaster sites - offering comfort to humans. A new study shows that a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog can help ease the pain of patients in the emergency room.
The research from the University of Saskatchewan, published in the journal PLOS found that emergency patients who were visited by a therapy dog reported less pain than those who were not.
Therapy dogs themselves...they are just very friendly, family pets that are so excited to visit with people and in places where you don't normally have a pet.
In a controlled study, researchers asked over 200 patients to report their pain levels. One group of patients received a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog and the other group did not. After the dog's visit, the researchers asked patients in both groups to report their pain levels again.
Those who spent 10 minutes with the dog reported less pain, according to the study.
Before the pandemic, a therapy dog visited several times a week. During the visits, the dog usually made a stop in the nursing room before visiting the patients.
I think that brought a smile to the faces of almost every staff member they interacted with.
Therapy dogs love their work, they love people.