Animal Assisted Therapy Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Animal Assisted Therapy - Research Proposal Example More recently, clinicians, nursing professionals and therapists are implementing animal-assisted interventions in working with geriatric population. The increase in numbers of elders living in nursing homes and exhibiting various symptoms and behaviors, such as depression, apathy and anxiety, which decrease their quality of life, is anticipated to demonstrate a corresponding growth within the long-term care setting. Nursing homes and similar institutions can expect to house more and more individuals who could benefit from an improved quality of life if therapeutic interventions were implemented to change these behaviours and consequently improve residents' quality of life. Current research indicates that the need for therapeutic interventions to improve quality of life for elders is readily recognised, and alternatives and options for implementation are often suggested with solid empirical evidence to support their effectiveness. Animal assisted therapy is cited in the literature as a therapeutic intervention that holds promise as one such modality. ... STUDY OBJECTIVES This study is empirically based and allowed for the investigation of effects within individual subjects. The study is designed with a philosophy that animal assisted therapy is an adjunct to an already established therapeutic discipline with its own standards of practice and methods, and acknowledged that the therapist is an integral aspect to the therapeutic intervention. The study acknowledges that while animals may be therapeutic, they are not therapists, and that animal assisted therapy cannot be implemented without a therapist specifically trained in a particular discipline, such as recreation therapy or psychology. Additionally, the design allowed for the application of nursing reasoning, a clinical assessment, a deliberately developed and implemented therapeutic intervention, and exploration of the effects of individualised animal assisted therapy on elders residing in nursing homes and its impact on their quality of life. Particularly, the goal is to examine the effect AAT ha s on self-reported quality of life in nursing home residents. Research studies in AAT have been conducted by various disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, gerontology, and veterinary medicine. To date, academic nursing has devoted limited effort to gathering information on the role of nurses in providing AAT. Currently, there is no nursing theory, and there is limited research on the benefits of animals to the elderly. The problem of quality of life among the elderly in long-term care facilities and nursing homes is common and is a problem that falls into the realm of nursing to monitor and address. It is also within the