PHOENIX — Student mental health in higher education has been an increasing concern.
Arizona College of Nursing's Phoenix campus recently started a program involving a puppy to ease some anxieties. The college launched an animal-assisted therapy pilot program in January.
Lucy is a two-year-old Irish setter and certified therapy dog who makes the rounds to classrooms before exams, which usually happens every other week for nursing students.
Nursing students Team 12's Jess Winters spoke with said Lucy is helping.
"She’s really great kind of taking some of that stress off, being able to not worry about school or exams, just being able to work with her and be around her is great," Jay Griffiths said.
"She came in before one of our exams and I only missed one question on the exam so she helped me relax quite a bit," student Jennifer Hill added.
Dr. Jen Bonilla, Executive Director of Operations for Arizona College of Nursing Phoenix campus, said there are many benefits to bringing in a therapy dog.
"There has been decades of research prior to these dogs even going into hospitals that it causes people to be much calmer, it can lower blood pressure, overall stress levels, it can even lower heart rate in folks," Bonilla explained. "So we felt like it was going to be a huge benefit to the students in terms of getting them to relax a little bit, especially in a testing environment."
The pilot program is on month three of a four-month test run. The college will give out a survey in late April to see if it's something students want to see again.
"The initial feedback has been tremendous from the students, they really want to see this program continue," Bonilla said.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine published a study on the effects of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health. Of the 195 students surveyed, more than 70% indicated increased stress and anxiety from the pandemic on top of an already-demanding school workload.
"We know nurses are leaving the profession in droves, my dissertation work when I did my Ph.D. was clinician burnout and turnover," Bonilla stated. "We need to throw everything we can at the stresses COVID has brought into the workplace and into the college environment."
This isn't the only mental health support the college offers.
"This is part of a much more robust program," Bonilla concluded. "We have counseling available to students along with a learning resource center, we also do art therapy. We’re doing everything we can to make students comfortable and make sure they perform well so they can graduate and become professional nurses and support the community."
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