Implementation manual created for carrying out the Animal-Assisted Therapy in the Palliative Care Unit of a general hospital

ABSTRACT

<b>Introduction：</b>There are various problems in order to perform the Animal-Assisted Therapy（AAT）in the Palliative Care Unit（PCU）of a general hospital, a manual for carrying out is required.<b> Methods：</b>In our hospital PCU, implementation manual has been created by the cooperation of university of research institutes, health center of administrative agency, and the infection control team of our hospital.<b> Results：</b>1st AAT was held in February 2011. Then, at a pace of once a month, AAT was held a total of 35 times until March 2013. During the AAT, therapy dog, handler, doctor, nurses, ward volunteers, health center veterinarian played the role of each as a team. The evaluation meeting held after, in addition to the evaluation and reaction of participants, evaluation of environmental health and compliance with procedure were also performed, implementation report has been submitted to the health center.<b> Discussion：</b>In order to perform the AAT in PCU in general hospital, there are problems such as infection, environment and health. In the practice, by obtaining cooperation experts each, it was possible to create an implementation manual by perspective multicenter multiple sectors. This manual would be helpful to perform the AAT in each facility.