Exam questions

Question 1

List all the CAM therapies we talked about in this class

Answer 1

Mind-Body-Spirit based therapies:

1. mental healing strategies (psychotherapy, meditation, biopheedback)
2. energy-balancing strategies (therapeutic touch, reiki)
3. creative arts therapies
4. animal-assisted strategies

Manual therapies:

1. massage styles (Swedish, myofascial release, shiatsu)
2. reflexology
3. osteopathy
4. chiropractic

Alternative Western therapeies:

1. naturopathy
2. homeopathy
3. western herbalism
4. aromatherapy

Eastern culture therapies:

1. traditional Chinese medicine
2. acupuncture
3. ayurveda
4. yoga

Aboriginal healing

Question 2

Comment on which discussion post you found most interesting, and why. (not your own) 6 marks

Answer 2

Module 2: Animal Assisted Therapy

• Implementing a hospital-based animal therapy program for children with cancer: A descriptive study
• Children living with cancer must cope with various stressors that can lead to adverse biopsychosocial effects.
• An animal therapy program called “A Magical Dream” was instituted for children hospitalized in pediatric oncology to promote their well-being during hospitalization and facilitate their adaptation to the therapeutic process.
• Preliminary study
• Main goal: complete a descriptive assessment of the program implementation using Donabedian’s quality model.
• Documenting the observed connection between participating in the program, quality of care and satisfaction of participating parents and nurses
• 16 parents of children and 12 nurses
• two self-administered questionnaires intended for parents and one questionnaire for nurses
• Evaluating the quality of the animal therapy program includes issues related to user profiles, animal therapy intervention process, organizational structure and client outcomes.
• Conclusions: dog-assisted therapy may contribute to alleviate psychological distress in children and parents, facilitate their adaptation to the therapeutic process, and promote their well- being while hospitalized.
• The goal of a second phase to the project will be to verify the effectiveness of the animal therapy intervention by targeting more specifically children hospitalized with solid tumours.

Why did I find it interesting?:

• Study demonstrates very well how AAT appears to benefit the children and contributes to a positive hospitalization experience.
• Interesting that the nursing staff was also questioned in this research
• I was unaware of the significant difference in perception regarding the quality of care and services between the patient’s families and the health care professionals’ perspectives
• Remarkably, this study found that the nurses declared a higher degree of agreement with the positive statements than the parents on a significant number of questions
• Though little scientific evidence exists on its efficacy in stress reduction specifically, the general benefit on patient well-being is well demonstrated in this research
• I also personally believe in the benefits animals can bring to treatment by relieving stress and anxiety in patients (nursing home pet therapy)