Dogs Offering Guidance: Therapeutic Observation for Reducing Examination Anxiety (DOGTOR).

Description

Physiotherapists work closely with patients to assess, diagnose and treat a variety of conditions. Thus, it is essential that education should assess these key competencies through both written examinations (to measure cognitive understanding) and practical examinations (to measure clinical skills). Practical examinations have been found to require more preparation and have been reported to be more anxiety-inducing than other forms of examination. One possible strategy to assist with reducing examination stress for students is canine interaction. In the inpatient hospital setting, animal-assisted therapy has found to be a safe and useful option for managing stress. Within the university setting, canine interaction has been shown to improve mood, affect, well-being and reduce stress. However, most of the previous work in this area did not investigate canine-intervention during exams. This study will utilise a randomised-controlled trial design to measure the impact of canine interaction immediately prior to practical examinations on perceived and physiological stress and determine if canine interaction impacts examination scores.

Interventions

• Canine Group (Behavioral)
  In a quiet room with a dog and dog handler, students will be able to freely interact with the dog prior to commencing their examinations. Both groups, intervention or control, participants will have their blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) measured by a member of the research team and complete a short questionnaire (details below). The intervention/control will occur 10 minutes prior to the participant's allocated examination slot. Following their examination, participants will have their BP and HR measured by a member of the research team and be asked to rate their stress on a visual analogue scale again. Participants who received the intervention will be asked to report their interaction types with the dog and invited to participate in a focus group to discuss their experience in the trial.

Eligibility criteria

Conditions

Locations

• La Trobe University — Bundoora, Victoria, Australia