Jeanette's Story: Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center

Text: Banner Volunteers Make For  Excellent Patient Care

Image:  Jeanette Sinohui with Rata; Jeanette, speaks on-camera

Text: Jeanette Sinohui / Rata
Volunteer/Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center 

Audio: “I volunteer at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital with my dog Rata. We go in and we visit patients, staff, family anybody that wants to see her. Rata is seven years old; I got her as a little baby puppy that I could hold in my hand. I knew she was a special girl when I first got her. I was still teaching at that time and so I just worked with her and there wasn’t a whole lot to train, because the therapy dogs really have that personality of knowing what to do and how to react to people. So, when I retired four years ago, I had it in my mind that I needed to do this. And I got onto the website and saw that they needed dog therapy and came down and ever since then we’ve been here and it’s been like a dream come true for me.

There’s a patient where we walk into the room and had been very non-responsive to the nurses and the doctors and everybody. And they asked us to go in and visit. I took Rata in, placed her on the bed with the patient. At first the patient didn’t look at her, didn’t want to have anything to do with her. And that’s when you become part of the furniture and let the dog do its work. And that’s what Rata did, because she kept on moving closer and closer to the patient. She laid her head on the lady’s lap and the lady started to pet her and started to talk to the dog. And I just the interaction go between those two and we were there for over half an hour with this lady. And to watch her finally smile and see the nurses look at her smile, oh my gosh, I mean what more can you ask for?”

Text: Banner Health
Copyright 2010