SON: Connections - Spring 2002

Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk | Alumni News

Best in Show: Undergraduate Scholar
Ranks Assisted Living Sites with Pets
When Kate Malkin was doing her first clinicals at the Veteran's Hospital, she was surprised to learn that their extended care facility allowed residents to bring in their pets. Malkin went for a visit, and sure enough met a friendly dog sauntering across the hallway.

"My grandmother always had a dog," she explains. "And when my grandfather died, that dog became her closest friend. I cannot imagine her living without it."

This interest led Malkin to apply for a de Tornyay Center Undergraduate Research Scholarship so that she could develop a resource list for individuals and families looking for nursing homes and assisted living facilities that accept pets. The results surprised her.

"It is not as prevalent as I had hoped," she says. "The assisted living facilities that accept pets tend to be more expensive, $2200 - $2400/month, plus a pet deposit fee of about $500. And many of these only take small pets."

And she is concerned that facilities that say they take pets offer little protection for the consumer. "It would be very difficult for an older person to make the move into assisted living with their pet and then find out the policy has changed," she says. "It's important to read the fine print on their pet policy."

Malkin earned a degree in English literature and a master's in education before coming to nursing. She is working with Assistant Professor Brenda Zierler, who helped her narrow down her research focus and concentrate on outcomes.

Undergraduate research scholar Kate Malkin, left, confers with faculty mentor Brenda Zierler

Zierler, herself a dog lover, had a graduate student who did a prior thesis on the Eden AlternativeTM. To decrease boredom, loneliness, and helplessness, facilities that incorporate the Eden Alternative create home-like conditions that include pets, plants, and pictures in an institutional environment.

Other faculty mentors for the undergraduate research scholarships are Marie-Annette Brown, Frances Munet-Vilaro, Basia Belza, June Strickland, Rebecca Logsdon, Donna Berry and Margaret Dimond.

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