Working Dog: Furry Friend Helps Relieve Stress For Metro Caregivers

Healthcare workers have faced unprecedented stress over the last two years. With the help of a furry friend, a metro hospital is trying to help its staff. 

“Our days are so busy. We’re running around working hard, taking care of patients,” said SSM nurse Amy Petitt.  

That led to an idea for a recently retired nurse. After 42 years as an administrator at SSM Health, Marti Jordan is helping her former colleagues. 

“I got Kix on adopt a pet, he’s a rescue, and he is my retirement project,” said Jordan  

As with most pet owners, she started Kix in simple obedience classes.  

“We had so much fun that we went through five obedience classes and then I found out about therapy dog and so we enrolled in that,” said Jordan.  

Eventually Kix was enrolled in therapy dog international and became an official therapy dog.  

“We’re both officially St. Anthony volunteers so we started coming up here not only to see the employees but also to see the patients,” said Jordan.  

Kix is a big hit with the patients and may be more popular among caregivers. 

“Down the hall people stop and want to pet him, and the employees ask me to come to their department,” said Jordan.  

“It kind of gives us a breath of fresh air, it makes us kind of recenter ourselves and we go, oh there’s a dog, and it just brings that stress level down that much more,” said Petitt.  

Kix has the perfect temperament for a therapy dog. 

“Because you can see, even though he’s only like 16 months old, he’s pretty laid back and he likes people and he likes dogs,” said Jordan.  

“I would encourage anybody that has a well-behaved dog that would be interested in therapy dog to go through the classes, they’re great,” said Jordan.