News
August 31, 2023

Compassionate Care Initiative Cart Rolls Again

Christine Kueter
An OR nurse visits with Kenny and the CCI cart in the UVA Health hall
An OR nurse visits with Kenny the therapy dog, part of the service offered by the Compassionate Care Initiative's cart, which recently relaunched and is visiting units across UVA Health all fall.

"This is the best part of my day!"

So said many of the more than three dozen UVA Health clinicians, administrators, and staff who enjoyed snacks, well-being ideas, and a visit from Kenny the therapy dog when the Compassionate Care Initiative (CCI) cart again roamed the hospital corridors and units, the first time since 2020 when COVID-19 brought its wheels to a screeching halt.

Laden with small gifts, healthy snacks, well-being resources, and even a break-time word find, CCI assistant director Hannah Crosby, 4th year BSN student Grace Foulds, and psychiatric-mental health nurse and assistant professor Edie Barbero and her therapy dog Kenny, recently relaunched the resilience-building service Aug. 31, with stops at the UVA blood bank, the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), 3 West's neuro-radiology unit, and the hospital's main operating room workrooms and common areas.

"We'll take a visit from Kenny every day!"

PACU nurse Lyndsey Isner

UVA Health team members like Lisa Barnes and Melissa Campbell, medical technicians at the UVA blood bank, took a few minutes from their work to close their eyes, stretch, and visit with Kenny and one another in a breakroom, plucking some of the resources from the CCI cart to keep at their workstations. Others, like PACU nurse Lyndsey Isner expressed appreciation for the cart, and quipped that they'd take "a visit from Kenny every day!"

staff in the UVA Health blood bank enjoy the CCI cart and are led in stretching
Staff at the UVA blood bank take a few minutes to stretch.
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PACU nurse smiles with kenny
A PACU nurse enjoys a visit with Kenny.
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A happy PACU nurse enjoys the CCI cart and kenny the therapy dog
"Just like my puppy!" this PACU nurse shared.
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cci cart rolls at UVA Health
Even in close quarters, UVA Health staff take part in a stretching exercise.
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A staffer in the blood bank takes time to stretch
And ... breathe. Staff in the blood bank quietly stretch and meditate together.
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A TCVICU nurse pets kenny the therapy dog with the cci cart
A nurse on 3 West enjoys Kenny's company in the staff lunchroom.
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A happy doc visits with Kenny
A happy doc in the PACU visits with Kenny.
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Stop and pet me, says Kenny
An impromptu visit in the UVA Health hallway. "Everyone," said Barbero, who's trained Kenny since he was a puppy, "is happy to see him. And he feeds off their energy."
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The CCI cart debuted in 2017, the brainchild of CCI staffers and alumna Jane Muir (BSN ’12, MSN ’22, PhD ’22), a nurse scientist who studies burnout and is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's National Clinician Scholars Program. Tabled during COVID-19, Crosby recently put out a call to UVA Health units to offer the service and was overwhelmed at the response. She's organized roughly monthly rounds with the cart through winter 2023 at the request of more than two dozen units.

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