JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurses will be the largest labor pool in the US by 2022, and more than 1.1 million nursing positions have to be filled by then in order to avoid additional shortage. In addition, the incidence rate of musculoskeletal disorders in nurses is above average in comparison with other occupations. Robot-assisted healthcare has the potential to alleviate the nursing shortage by automating mundane and routine nursing tasks. Furthermore, robots are a potential solution in healthcare environments to assist with safe patient mobility and handling and, thereby reduce the likelihood of musculoskeletal disorders.

Objective:

Objective:

This study seeks to investigate acceptability of a customized service robot, referred to as the Adaptive Robotic Nurse Assistant (ARNA) by nurses in healthcare environments. This service robot has been envisioned to enhance the productivity of nurses through cooperation during physical tasks (e.g., patient walker, item fetching, etc.) as well as non-physical tasks (e.g., patient observation and feedback). In this study, we particularly evaluate perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of ARNA when it provides ambulatory assistance to patients.

Methods:

Methods:

We conducted a trial with 24 participants to collect data and address the following research question: Is the use of ARNA in a patient walker scenario acceptable to nursing staff? The experiments were conducted with nursing students in dyads — one serving as a nurse and the other acting as a patient, in a simulated hospital environment. Two questionnaires were developed and administrated to the nursing students based on the Technology Acceptance Model with respect to the two subscales of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) metrics. In order to evaluate the internal consistency/reliability of the questionnaires, we calculated Cronbach alpha coefficients. Furthermore, a correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the relation of each variable in the questionnaires with the overall PU and PEU metrics.

Results:

Results:

Both Cronbach alpha values were high (0.93 and 0.82 for PU and PEU questionnaires, respectively), indicating high internal consistency of the questionnaires. The correlation between the variables and the overall PU and PEU metrics were moderate. The average values of the overall PU and PEU metrics among the participants were 4.13 and 5.42 out of possible 7, respectively, indicating a higher-than-average acceptability of this service robot.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: The obtained results, through the user surveys and statistical analyses, served to identify factors that could affect nurses’ acceptance of ARNA, and aspects needing improvement.