Attitudes to a robot bathtub in Danish elder care: A hermeneutic interview study

Abstract

In Western countries, assistive technology is implemented on a large scale in elder care settings. Only a few studies have attempted to explore the different attitudes to assistive technology among various groups of users. In this study, we investigated and explained the different attitudes among the involved leaders, nursing staff, and older people to a newly-implemented robot bathtub. Qualitative analyses of eight interviews with managers, nursing staff, and the older users revealed that the informants focused on different aspects (process, values, and functionality, respectively), used different implicit quality criteria, and ascribed different symbolic significance to the robot bathtub. Thus, the study demonstrated how attitudes toward the robot bathtub were connected to the informants' institutional role. The findings challenge the current paradigm, where technology is expected to operate as a passive tool, simply facilitating desired human acts and interactions. Further studies drawing on the epistemological and ontological perceptions of science technology studies are needed in order to understand human rationalities in the assistive technology context and to offer new insights into how technology "works" in organizations.

Finnish healthcare professionals' attitudes towards robots: Reflections on a population sample

“…In addition, head nurses and other managers had relatively extensive experience with robots in healthcare work. This corresponds with prior studies showing that higher education and managerial experience go hand in hand with robot acceptance (Beedholm et al., ; de Graaf & Ben Allouch, ). Managers consider technology, at least partly, from an organization's perspective.…”

“…Hence, even if laborious (Erkkilä et al, 2016;Trydegård, 2012) and partly routinelike (Sparrow & Sparrow, 2006) practical care work in particular could benefit from robotics, the workers did not see this solely as positive. That said, this finding reflects the worries regarding quality and ethics of care, which are related to responsiveness, humanity and attentiveness (Beedholm et al, 2015;Hofmann, 2013;Sharkey, 2014;Vallor, 2011;van Wynsberghe, 2013). Regardless of their relatively negative attitudes towards robots in general, the healthcare professionals approved the idea of robot assistance in some care tasks rather than in others.…”

“…Prior findings imply that nurses appreciate robots as assistive tools and monitoring devices, but not for tasks that require social interaction (Alaiad & Zhou, 2014;Jenkins & Draper, 2015). In Beedholm et al (2015) study, managers of an elderly centre had more positive views of a bathtub robot compared with other staff and residents.…”

“…In Beedholm et al. () study, managers of an elderly centre had more positive views of a bathtub robot compared with other staff and residents. Apart from the ethical discussion, managers appreciated the image‐elevating advantages that robotization would bring to their unit.…”

“…A major concern regarding the introduction of novel care technology is whether it affects the care recipients in a positive or negative manner (Borenstein & Pearson, ). People are worried that robots will replace workers in healthcare and hence endanger the quality, ethical principles and current standards of care work (Beedholm, Frederiksen, Skovsgaard Frederiksen, & Lomborg, ; Hofmann, ; Sharkey, ; Vallor, ). Robots arguably “pose a threat to the holistic care” (van Wynsberghe, , p. 427).…”