Today’s university healthcare students will be tomorrow’s senior caregivers. So how do these prospective nurses and staffers feel about the prospect of working alongside robots?
Students in disciplines related to health tech and healthcare are generally supportive of the idea of robot-aided senior care, believing the technology to be safe and even beneficial for fostering social interaction, according to a recent study.
The researchers focused on “telepresence” robots, which are largely roving screens that allow for telehealth or virtual conferencing with family members.
In the survey, the study identified six themes for how student participants viewed robots in the context of senior living and care:
- Robots as supplementary interaction.
- Robots’ effect on privacy, confidentiality and physical harm.
- Residents’ mental well-being and opportunities for interactions.
- Intergenerational perspectives add values.
- A particular community’s staffing capacity.
- Environmental and cultural factors that influence acceptance.
Interestingly, the study found that students in different disciplines had slightly different concerns about robots’ effects. Students in nursing programs were focused on how robots will benefit the social lives of older adults and reduce loneliness, whereas students in medical schools raised concerns about privacy issues.
There was generally optimism among those surveyed that, by being cognizant of these potential issues, however, long-term care providers and tech companies could direct the use and development of robotic technology in a meaningful direction.
The student participants also pushed back against the notion that older adults themselves would struggle with the robot interactions, with some saying that any tech training would be minimal.
“Ageist stereotypes have contributed to the underuse of technologies by the older population,” the researchers wrote. “Participants shared the importance of the voice of the resident and their own for creating more equitable decision-making and advocating for including this type of technology within LTC.”
The research will be published in this month’s edition of the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
