Could therapy dog interactions transform student success at Sacred Heart? The Davis & Henley College of Nursing (DHCON) and the psychology department are trying to find the answer. Project Zora was created by Dr. Gina Reitmeyer, Clinical Assistant Professor, and her colleagues with the approval of the Dean of the DHCON, Karen Daley, to determine whether these furry friends may help to decrease stress and anxiety.
Source: Daniel Passapera, Sacred Heart University
Students have already expressed confidence in this initiative’s ability to positively impact their study habits and overall mental state. Ideally, Project Zora will allow them to achieve improved academic performance by promoting a calmer and more focused mindset.
“I think it would be really beneficial to meet with a therapy dog before an exam. I have a therapy dog at home and I know other students could find it helpful. I think it would be really cool,” said freshman Sophia Fiore.
Source: Daniel Passapera, Sacred Heart University
Zora is a Belgian Tervuren Shepherd. She just turned one this past February and was adopted at seven weeks old from a family in Vermont. She has been training to become a therapy dog since she was three months old with Reitmeyer, her owner. She is now training at a facility called “Where Sit Happens,” where she is ranked a level four out of five based on her achievements.
“In the department of nursing, we have noticed collectively that the students tend to have high anxiety and stress due to the difficulty of the program. We have noticed that the levels of stress have heightened over the past year. Project Zora is going to be an outlet that can help them in decreasing their stress and anxiety,” said Reitmeyer.
The department has high hopes for Zora and her ability to help the students. Its staff wants to develop the project so that Zora can come to Sacred Heart more frequently.
“Zora is another resource to help with anxiety. Our study and our plan is to have her on campus once a week. Students are going to volunteer to see her, and if there are times of stress we want students to just come and see her in the lobby of the CHE [Center for Healthcare Education] with hopes of lowering students’ anxiety and stress before exams,” said Theresa Soltis, Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing.
“Dr. Yeater and Dr. [Dawn] Melzer have been studying therapy dogs on campus, looking at the students before and after they interact with the dog. The interventions last only 10 minutes. We collected data on the perceived stress scale and generalized self ethicality,” said Dr. Deirdre Yeater, Psychology Department Chair.
More extensive research has also been conducted.
“We collected saliva samples before and after they interacted with the dog and measured the cortisol levels in each person. We also replicated the study at two local high schools and we found that after meeting with the dog for 10 minutes, the stress levels were down and people felt better and more confident in themselves,” said Yeater. “We are trying to scientifically provide evidence to back the fact that therapy dogs have a positive impact. It’s a little bit of a gray area because a service dog receives funding and a therapy dog is a volunteer.”
“Zora is only one, so as we get her started in the fall working with the students, she will have grown into an adult. Over the next three years, things can only get better as she gets older, and she’s going to get familiar with the students,” Soltis said.
In the event that students are allergic to or scared of dogs, their participation in Project Zora will be optional.
For now, Project Zora will only exist within the DHCON. Such an initiative is still very new to Sacred Heart since there has never been a therapy dog on campus for students of a specific major.
In the future, the idea may be extended to other programs.
Although the project hasn’t officially begun, it is set to launch over the course of the next two or three years. Daley is on board and applauds the idea of having a therapy dog for the students.
