There are service animals, emotional support animals, and animals that are your best friends at home. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could have a little mixture of all of them and they could come visit with patients at the hospital, as well as give staff a little mid-shift morale boost? Granted, not all people like animals, but those who do, really, really do, and how great would it be to get them a few minutes with man’s best friend?

There have been lots of articles about animals at Nursing Homes and long-term care facilities, but there isn’t a lot out there about animals brought to the in-patient setting. Animals are almost always allowed when they are working service animals, which are animals trained to perform a specific duty task for a person in need of assistance (like a seeing eye dog, seizure alert dogs, etc.) as part of maintaining Americans with Disabilities (ADA) requirements. However allowing therapy pets, is a little more controversial.

Read more here at AllNurses.com

Yours in Good Health!