Nursing careers with animals?

[IRN]

I have been a nurse for 5 years. Before that I worked in veterinary hospital for 10 years in various roles.

I would love to find (or create) an area of nursing where I could work with animals and people. I am not looking to be a nurse for animals, but instead be a nurse for people and include the therapeutic relationship that can be obtained with animals. Do any of you have experience or know of any areas of nursing where this is possible?

For PT, OT, SLP there is hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. There are people who work with therapy dogs and seeing eye dogs. But none of them seem to include nurses.

Any ideas?

[DustinRN]

I have been a nurse for 5 years. Before that I worked in veterinary hospital for 10 years in various roles.

I would love to find (or create) an area of nursing where I could work with animals and people. I am not looking to be a nurse for animals, but instead be a nurse for people and include the therapeutic relationship that can be obtained with animals. Do any of you have experience or know of any areas of nursing where this is possible?

For PT, OT, SLP there is hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. There are people who work with therapy dogs and seeing eye dogs. But none of them seem to include nurses.

Any ideas?

Hmmm...not sure, the vet techs are the nurses of the animal world.

[CashewLPN, LPN]

forgive me for going off topic-- Hippotherapy?

Whats that?

[suebird3]

Hypnotherapy, right?

Thearapeutic animals sounds like a good idea, though....

[MissJoRN, RN]

forgive me for going off topic-- Hippotherapy?

Whats that?

It is spelled Hippotherapy = PT on horseback

We learned a lot of greek word roots in nursing school, but hippo wasn't one of them was it, LOL?

Not sure about other areas of nursing involving animals aside from "casual" contact- I deal with the family dogs, kitties, and birds in homecare; some camps like all their staff to multifunction, so you might be a camp nurse for a shift then teach riding; many LTC facilities are adding animals to their "staff"...nothing else is coming to me

[elkpark]

Hippotherapy does not have to be specifically focused on physical therapy; there are a number of programs around the country I have heard of or read about that work with kids (and/or adults) with psych/emotional problems or developmental disabilities (but do not have physical limitations).

There are also agencies out there that train therapy dogs and their owners/handlers and I have encountered therapy dogs in a variety of psych settings (child psych nursing is my field).

Being a nurse wouldn't prevent you from getting involved in any of these programs, but, as far as I know, there is no nursing specialty that involves working with animals -- you would have to go outside nursing for that (or, as you noted, create your own opportunity to incorporate animals into your practice ...)