Community Corner
Therapy Dogs Show us Swedish/Edmonds Hospital from their Point of View.....Literally
Dogs wearing cameras give a unique view and perspective of Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.
Swedish/Edmonds has some rising stars. Therapy pups Shug (pronounced like the beginning of the word sugar) and Teddy have been showing off the hospital in a very unique way: from a canine perspective.
Steve Kaiser, Director of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations for Swedish/Edmonds, was inspired by a video he saw on YouTube where a person strapped a camera on his cat's head to see what the cat did all day while he was at work. That video wasn't particularly exciting, but Kaiser realized he could capture more action by employing the same method with the dogs visiting Swedish/Edmonds.
Kaiser approached Christi Dudzik, the owner and trainer of Shug and Teddy. Dudzik has been helping patients in hospitals feel better since 1993, and at Swedish/Edmonds (formerly Stevens Hospital) since 1996 by visiting patients with her therapy dogs. Her business, Healing Paws, is an animal assisted therapy provider.
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They got together to make webisodes of Shug and Teddy visiting patients. To get the video footage, they strap a small camera to the head of the therapy pooch while the dog goes visiting patients on their "rounds".
The hospital approved their project. Staff reasoned that they could both showcase Swedish/Edmonds and highlight the work that therapy dogs do.
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Patients who participate in the videos give their consent. In fact, whether the dogs are filming one of their videos, or just on their routine rounds, they never visit a patient that would not be interested in a pet visit. Different patients have different ways of coping with their stay in the hospital.
"We honor people's space because we want them to feel welcome here," Dudzik said.
Shug is the star of the first installments, and Teddy will make his big debut shortly. Between the YouTube views, and a handful of other websites, the dogs have had over 12,000 views of their videos, and that is not including the hits on the hospital's own website.
Since the camera is mounted on the dog's head, it catches just the end of the dog's nose and follows his eyes wherever he looks. This gives a very real perspective. You can view all of the Therapy Pups Camera segments on the hospital's website.