UVA Therapy Dog Offers Telehealth Sessions During Pandemic

With the stress of living under lockdown measures and social distancing, it’s more important than ever to care for your mental well-being, but where can you find a therapist? Well, for students at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, at least, there’s some good news: Kenny, the campus Therapy Dog, has taken up teleconferencing!

Like everyone else, Kenny’s platform of choice is Zoom. While he’s still adjusting to the new medium, the 5-year-old Australian Labradoodle therapist is now providing group appointments with the assistance of his trusty human companion, psychiatric/mental health nursing professor Edie Barbaro. His first session was a decided hit, drawing three dozen adults, children, a smattering of other dogs, and even a few open-minded cats.

Kenny earned his pet therapy certification two years ago, and has been on duty at the nursing school and hospital since 2018. Having helped anxious nursing students while they ready themselves for the NCLEX and other exams, the canine therapist is working to make the transition to telehealth for those in need of comfort during the pandemic. When Kenny conducted his first Zoom session from a couch, alongside professor Barbaro, it was clear that he was still adjusting to the change (he became restless after a while and needed to be coaxed with a biscuit before agreeing to resume the session). Overall, though, with Barbaro’s aid, his foray into virtual pet therapy has been a howling success.

Hosted by the UVA School of Nursing’s Compassionate Care Initiative, Kenny’s Zoom telehealth sessions are being held on Tuesdays at noon, and will continue through May 5, while UVA Medical Center’s volunteering services are suspended. Among the patients tuning in for treatment are faculty from the nursing school and School of Medicine and staff, their children, and some nurse-practitioner students with the Adult

Gerontology Acute Care Trauma team. Of course, the virtual therapy sessions are not quite the same as direct dog-human contact, and Barbaro remarks,“He misses the students.”

For more on Kenny’s temporary telehealth pet therapy practice at UVA, visit here.

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Koren Thomas

Associate Editor at DailyNurse

Koren Thomas (pictured with Assistant) was the associate editor of DailyNurse from late 2019 through July, 2022—and she was not joking about the "issue postage stamps saluting US nurses" idea. Send your article ideas, submissions, Nurse of the Week suggestions, comments, and corrections to the current Editor in Chief at [email protected].