A qualitative exploration of care homes workers’ views and training needs in relation to the use of socially assistive humanoid robots in their workplace

Abstract

Aim:The study aimed to explore the views and attitudes of care home workers about the socially assistive robot that was trialled in their workplace, in order to identify training needs in relation to the hypothetical future use of these robots in their workplace.Background: Care home workers face challenging workload conditions which may require the exploration of new solutions such as the use of socially assistive robots (SARs).Methods: This is a qualitative descriptive study which used semi-structured interviews. Care home workers (n = 23) in the UK participated in the study, and data collection took place between October 2019 and January 2020. NVivo software was used for data management, and a thematic inductive analysis was conducted.Results: Findings indicated that many participants were open to the use of robots and valued the potential usefulness of SARs in the care setting. However, some participants showed resistance to the use of robots and did not feel comfortable with the idea of working alongside them. Participants wished to receive technical training that would enable them to be competent in using SARs. Participants took seriously their duty of care to the older people and thus wanted to ensure that the use of the SAR would not negatively impact on the care being provided. Robots were viewed as having potential to be supplementary to human carers, such as sharing the workload and improving upon the care already being provided. Conclusions: Care home workers express both positive and negative views in relation to the hypothetical future deployment of socially assistive humanoid robots in their workplace. Implications for practice: The findings highlighted the importance of values around person-centred care which should be taken into account when planning for the implementation of robots in social care settings and training care home workers in how to work with robots.

Socially assistive robots in health and social care: Acceptance and cultural factors. Results from an exploratory international online survey

“…This study found that the large majority of the participants ranked the item "[Robots] have no benefits" as 10 (least important), indicating an overwhelming degree of full acceptance of the benefits of SARs in health and social care, which is consistent with previous research (e.g., Papadopoulos et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2022 andZuschnegg et al, 2021). This was found across all the countries in the sample, and is all the more striking considering that only 10% of the participants had actually worked with or seen SARs in use.…”

“…This is an interesting contrast to the historical example and the findings of Broadbent et al (2012) discussed earlier. Most objections related to fears for patient safety should the SAR malfunction, closely followed by misgivings concerning depersonalized and dehumanized care, which closely resemble the themes identified in the study by Papadopoulos et al (2021) and Zuschnegg et al, 2021 discussed earlier. These latter objections relate to a key aspect of humanity and compassion.…”

Nurses’ perception towards care robots and their work experience with socially assistive technology during COVID-19: A qualitative study

“…However, concerns relating to the use of care robots, initial anxiety or fear, 27 or privacy issues, exist. 28 In contrast, our participants had a positive attitude toward care robots. This may be because our participants prioritized the importance of non-contact care due to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

The ethics of pet robots in dementia care settings: Care professionals’ and organisational leaders’ ethical intuitions

“…The third domain relates to concerns that robots will replace human caregiving ( 17 ), especially with a rapid global ageing population and the insufficiency of available caregivers in long-term care settings ( 29 ). In such settings, care professionals have expressed similar fears that the use of robots could render their jobs obsolete and dehumanise care for people with dementia ( 30 ), however, such arguments relate more to socially assistive robots rather than pet robots.…”