A Survey on Awareness of Service Dogs among Veterinary Nursing and Nursing Students

Abstract

In Japanese law concerning assistance dogs for the disabled, it is required to accept service dogs in public places and transportations. However, there are still many acceptance refusal cases, and various medical facilities are included. In this study, we conducted a survey on the awareness of medical and veterinary nursing students concerning service dogs. Three hundred and ten students (104 medical nursing students, 107 veterinary nursing college students, and 99 veterinary nursing vocational school students) answered the questionnaire. All veterinary college students took the classes about service dogs as an academic training, but these classes were not in the vocational school. The veterinary nursing students exceeded about the knowledge of service dogs than the medical nursing students. Further, veterinary nursing college students sufficiently understood service dogs than the vocational school students. That means, the lecture in formal education was effective for the understanding about service dogs. In addition, because all students have low interest about sanitation management and toilet support about service dogs, it is suggested that education raising awareness in these is necessary.