Pets, Culture Change and Compassion in Long-Term Care

Long-term care facilities that include pets as residents are finding that fuzzy friends offer not only companionship to their human residents, but also comfort at the end of life. Dr. David Dosa, geriatrician and health services researcher at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and author of Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat, shares his stories about a nursing home cat named Oscar with an uncanny ability to sense when patients are nearing the end of life. What can Oscar teach us about compassionate palliative and hospice care? How prevalent are animal programs at long-term care facilities, and what other benefits do pets offer to residents? How do animal programs fit in with culture change in long-term care? Dr. Eric Tangalos hosts.