Nugget’s last shift: Wellstar Children’s Hospital’s first facility dog retires
When Nugget first started at Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta eight years ago, she immediately hit the ground running — tail wagging — with one mission: to make every day a little brighter.
“She got here on a Monday, and by Friday, she was doing her first inpatient interactions, hanging out with some of our oncology patients at the time,” Harleigh Smith, Nugget’s handler and child life specialist at the hospital, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Since joining the staff in 2017, ten-year-old Nugget — the hospital’s first facility dog — has brightened the lives of many patients. Now, she’s retiring.
“She was definitely a trailblazer, and we figured out very quickly that this was gonna be a game changer for our pediatric hospital here in Augusta,” Smith said.
Nugget was born and raised at a service dog training facility in Milton, where she was trained to support people with disabilities, including those living with epilepsy, autism, and mobility limitations. At around 10 months old, she was recognized for her unique, calm temperament.
“We realized very quickly she was a cuddler,” Smith explained. “She wanted to be snuggling you.”
For almost 30 years before Nugget’s arrival, the hospital had been using volunteer dogs that would come in once a month, mostly for meet-and-greets. By the time Smith arrived at the hospital, about two months before Nugget was adopted, there was a need for a full-time facility dog on staff.
Nugget’s presence was so needed, in fact, that about a year and a half later, the facility got its second dog, Casey.
In the eight years since Nugget joined, the golden retriever has done extraordinary work. She has been involved in 29,682 patient and family interventions, which include over 5,500 procedures involving a needle.
“It’s been a really special time to just reflect and truly see her value in number form, because the past eight years, I’ve been able to witness it in real time,” Smith said. “She was the calm and the storm of over 5,500 pokes.”
In recent years, Nugget has begun to slow down, and the hospital knew retirement was on the horizon.
“She just doesn’t quite have the stamina to do the patient care part of her job, so she’s easing into retirement, or as I like to call it, transitioning out of patient care,” Smith said.
Nugget will shift to the public relations part of her job, which includes hospital events where she will still get the attention she craves.
“Nugget is definitely a crowd favorite because she was the first, and for a while, she was the only. And she still loves the PR side of her job,” Smith said. “We knew that was gonna be a big adjustment for the diva.”
Smith, who Nugget has primarily lived with for the past eight years, is about to sign the contract to officially adopt Nugget from the hospital. She’s a bit worried about how she will adjust to life at the hospital without her “left side girl.”
“It’s really rewarding as the one that’s been the one holding the leash for eight years to know that I come to work every day with the hope that I make a difference for patients and families,” Smith said. “It’s a bittersweet next step, for sure, but she’s done a lot of good things, and she’s definitely earned the right to be a couch potato.”
