Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katherine Hospital's Director of Nursing Renae Daniel reveals plans for a therapy dog at the facility

Transcript

Katherine Hospital's Director of Nursing Renae Daniel reveals plans for a therapy dog at the facility · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Catherine is indeed gearing up well to host the first
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Defense and Mayoral Ball, which is going to be raising
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: money for a therapy dog at the Catherine Hospital. It
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: was an idea that came from staff working at the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Emergency department. And here to tell us a little bit
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: more is Renee Daniel, the general manager and Director of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Nursing and Midwiffrey at the Catherine Hospital. Good morning to you, Renee.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hi Katie, how are you going?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: You're really good, lovely to have you on the show.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Thank having me Renee.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Firstly, what kind of dog are you hoping to secure
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for staff at the hospital.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, we've been in discussion with Paus Darwin, who are
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: actually going to be supplying the therapy dog to us,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: and basically the dog will be required to have low
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: allergenic care. So they were thinking of a standard poodle
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: breed or something that's a larger dog with the hair
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that doesn't shed basically, so that part isn't confirmed yet,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but that there are a few different options.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Now, why was.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: This something that you know that the staff and that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: yourself were keen to do.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Look, the idea came from our emergency department team. There
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: is a large volume of research about the benefits both
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: physical and emotional for patients and staff from therapy dogs.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: They have been proven to lower blood pressure, heart rate,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and pain in patients. There's been some clinically significant changes
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: in pain presentations in eed patients after a ten minute
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: therapy dog visit. There's also evidence around it improving cardiovascular
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: health YEP, helping reduce anxiety and depression, and just an
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: overall improvement of well being the both patients and staff.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Oh look, I am a massive lover of dogs. Anybody
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: who listens to this show knows that nothing makes me
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: happier than when the police dogs come in for a visit.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: They are just beautiful and I am absolutely blown away
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: by the way that they're trained to be able to,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you know, to catch criminals and people doing the wrong thing.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: But then the way that they're still able to interact
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: with people sort of each and.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Every day in the community.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Then when you talk about therapy dogs and the way
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that they can really help people, whether it's staff or patients,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I reckon it would have a phenomenal impact at the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: hospital there definitely YEP. Now you know, when it comes
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to your staff, how do you reckon that the therapy
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: dog will benefit the staff.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: As you can imagine working in healthcare it so it
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: can be an extremely stressful environment and you know, the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: things that healthcare professionals deal with on a daily basis
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: can have you know, effects on staff. And the aim
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: of the dog is basically to be able to provide
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that comfort to staff in times of increased stress, but
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: also just to create that more family environment within our hospitals.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: You know, we've got a lot of staff that move
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: from into state, their families aren't here, and it's just
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: to help create that environment, you know, for them that's
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: more of a family environment, also to help alleviate stress
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Now I understand that the ball is certainly aiming to
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: raise funds to make it happen. How much is going
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to be needed to go towards the therapy dog.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So a therapy dog costs approximately thirty thousand dollars and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: that includes the training of the of the dog for
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a twelve month period and also the training of the handlers.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: There's also including in that is you know, follow up
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: support from pores and hart Dogs to you know, continue
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: checking the performance and the training of the dog. Yeah,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: but there's a lot of work involved in actually getting
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: a dog to the level that it's able to do
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: its role as a therapy dog.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Now I understand that the obviously you know, the ball
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: is going to be a massive social event I would
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: suspect for the Catherine community.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Is everybody pretty excited?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, we are very pumped. Yeah, lots lots of excitement. Yeah,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: it's just going to be a fabulous night. There's some
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: great entertainment. The Wraths Band are being flown up from
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: interstate to provide the entertainment for the night, and we've
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: also got Constantina as our host. So yeah, it should
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: be a fabulous night. Plus there will be a live
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: auction on the evening and you know, the generosity and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: donation from the Catherine community towards this has been phenomenal.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: That's so cool.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's wonderful, you know to see the community
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: really getting together on this one and you know, to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: see the ball set to take place. When exactly is
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: it happening? And are you expecting that you might have
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: some people from Darwin and other parts of the territory
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: travel there for it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, we would love that. It's on this Saturday, the
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: sixth of August and it's being held at the Catherine Museum.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: It doesn't include a three course meal music obviously in
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the live options. And yeah, you can still purchase tickets.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: There's a few tickets left and they can either be
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: purchased in person from the Catherine Town Council or over
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the phone eight nine seven two double five, double zero.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Now, Rene, if there's anybody listening this morning, who's thinking,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: do you know what, I'd love to make a bit
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of a donation as well.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Is there a way in which they can do that?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Definitely if they get in touch with the Catherine Town
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Council through that phone number eight nine seven two double five,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: double zero, that's definitely a way that they can provide
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: a donation towards this great cause.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Oh good stuff. Well, I hope it all goes incredibly well.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And if you know, if you get all that money raise,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: when when would the therapy dog be able to you know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to start.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Well, that would be based on Paud's availability to source
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: a dog, but we would hope within the next six months.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Well, please keep us up to date
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: and let us know how it all goes. I love
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: this story when it when the pressure release came through,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I thought, what a wonderful thing to do, and and
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully it has a great impact on the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: morale of everybody that's at the hospital.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Katie, thank you, thanks for your time.