Bella Haynes, a senior WVU School of Nursing student, recently presented her Honors EXCEL project at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. The project was titled "Associations Between Pet Ownership, Psychological Health, and Loneliness in Undergraduate College Students."
Haynes, of Parkersburg, grew up as an only child with a love for pets, which inspired the topic for her research project.
“I’ve always grown up with dogs. My whole life I've had an average of four. I came to college with no dog, no cat, no pets,” Haynes said.
During her sophomore year, she lived in a university-owned apartment and wanted to explore getting an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) in order to have a pet with her. However, she realized that there were many steps in the process of acquiring an ESA.
Students must have a doctor, psychologist, or someone who can fill out the paperwork about their required diagnosis of a mental health disorder, plus a few additional steps.
Haynes thought that these steps may not be accessible to everyone, making it a challenge. She recognized that it is a privilege for students to have access to the required materials in order to benefit from having a pet.
“Do they even go to a doctor? Do they have insurance? Do their parents believe in mental health?” Haynes questioned. “Being a young adult, do they want to say how they actually feel at the doctor? There are a lot of barriers.”
Haynes’ research goal was to gather the data to see how the system of acquiring a pet at WVU affects students, so she can present her research and potentially achieve policy change.
Through her research, Haynes learned that sophomore students struggle the most with anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness. She attributed it to the stress of going from a freshman with general education foundation courses to a sophomore with more challenging degree specific courses. Many of these sophomore students start living in apartments and may want a pet.
Since then, she has finished and presented her research at the undergraduate symposium, learning a lot along the way. Haynes gained confidence skills, learned about the research process and learned how to answer questions about her research in front of judges and people. She said it was scary doing something new at first but she focused on the knowledge she was gaining.
She will present her research again in March at the Capitol in Charleston for Undergraduate Research Day, where she hopes to make ground on policy change.
Haynes is also a research assistant for Dr. Brad Phillips, and credits him for helping her learn about research along the way. She said she admired his hard work and expressed her appreciation for him as a mentor.
Now, Haynes is starting to apply for jobs. She is looking for positions in cardiovascular intensive care units, as she loves the heart and understands it well. Eventually, she wants to go back to school and become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).
She is not sure when she will conduct additional research, but she said she enjoys the process of learning and then implementing change.
“I like things that bother me and then I like to try to fix them, like the pet policy,” Haynes said. “So I can maybe see myself doing it in the future.”
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CONTACT: Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu