Murphy Mondays: The First St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog in a Canadian Emergency Room (ER)

As the subtitle explains, Murphy Mondays is about an English Springer Spaniel that, in the fall of 2015, became the first St. John Ambulance (SJR) therapy dog to visit a Canadian hospital’s Emergency Room, namely that of the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The short title comes from the fact that ER staff dubbed Mondays as Murphy Mondays as that was the day the dog and his owner, Jane Smith, a retired school teacher, would regularly appear in the ER.

Murphy Mondays is loosely divided into three parts: “The Child Patients”, “The Adult Patients” and “The Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff”. In each, Smith provides an overview of how Murphy interacts with that particular constituency. The opening section, which is the longest and is aimed at the book’s principal audience, explains how a dog and its handler/owner get to become part of the SJA therapy dog program and how both dog and owner/handler can be recognized in the hospital by the “uniform” each must wear. Smith uses three pages to focus on the need for everyone to wash their hands both before and after petting Murphy. She suggests using the singing of “Happy Birthday” as a way to measure how long the hand washing should take and adds a full-colour poster from the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Public Health department that outlines an 11-step hand washing procedure. The remainder of this section provides a few examples of how Murphy’s presence can allay children’s fears and concerns, thereby allowing the hospital staff to more easily carry out their tasks.

In the remaining two sections, “The Adult Patients” and “The Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff”, Smith reveals that Murphy’s calming presence extends beyond children to adult ER patients and to those who work within the hospital’s walls. Readers might be surprised to learn that “Murphy was one of the SJA dogs who visited the injured Humboldt Bronco hockey players and their families in hospital after their bus accident.” The closing section also informs readers that Smith takes Murphy to other institutions.

In Saskatoon, Murphy makes weekly visits to the patients and staff of the mental health unit of a hospital and to the residents of a long-care home and a seniors’ home. He also sometimes visits people at the Saskatoon airport, the Saskatchewan Polytechnic college, and the University of Saskatchewan, and has helped Jane speak at different events.

Design-wise, for the most part, each pair of facing pages consists of a text page and a page containing a watercolour and ink illustration by Wendi Nordell. A number of captioned, colour photos of people and places connected with Murphy Mondays’s contents are inserted towards the end of book. The penultimate page offers “Pre-reading”, “During reading” and “After reading” “Discussion Questions”.

A note on the “Dedication” page states: “All author profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the Royal University Hospital Foundation (RUH Emergency Department) and the Saskatchewan St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program.”

Though young readers of Murphy Mondays will be most engaged by the contents of the first section, “The Child Patients”, adults who may be involved in co-reading the book may find themselves sufficiently motivated to inquire if such a supportive service is available in the area in which they live.