Charlotte Hu/Business Insider
Professor is more than just a therapy dog.
In fact, in the 1.5 years he's been working at Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's hospital, he has become a VIP employee.
Professor, whose full name is Professor Bunsen Honeydew, is a 3-year-old golden doodle and the first of the two facility dogs to arrive at Kravis. A three year grant of $350,000 from PetSmart Charities covers everything from veterinary care, grooming, food, trainers, Ubers, and the salary of the certified child life specialist he's paired with.
Shortly after he arrived in March 2017, the hospital realized that one dog wasn't going to be enough. So they procured Amos, another golden doodle, shortly afterwards. They're both part of the Paws and Play program in Karvis' Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.
The main goal of child life is to facilitate psychosocial adjustment to hospitalization and illness. Kravis employs specialists in the ER, clinic, radiology wing, and inpatient units-which includes an intensive care unit. The specialists engage patients and their families in a variety of therapies and stress-reducing activities to decrease trauma and pain, and increase coping.
The largest children's hospitals have been creating facility dog programs for the past 10 years, and Kravis was the first hospital in the New York metropolitan area to adopt this, according to Morgan Stojanowski, assistant director of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.
