Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 28, 2020
Date Accepted: May 14, 2020
The role of an assistive robot in care for older persons: opinions of medical and nursing students
ABSTRACT
Background:
Populations are ageing at an alarming rate in many countries around the world. Not only a decrease in the number of births and an increase in the percentage of older people is observed, but also an increase in the number of people living alone. There is a growing demand for specialist medical care and daily care with the number of people who can act as caregivers getting smaller. The use of assistive robots can at least partially solve these problems.
Objective:
The purpose of the study was to examine the opinions of future healthcare professionals – medical and nursing students – about the use of assistive robots in care for seniors.
Methods:
The study was conducted with a group of 178 students of Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland (110 nursing students and 68 medical students), using the Users’ Needs, Requirements, and Abilities Questionnaire (UNRAQ).
Results:
The participants of the study believed that the assistive robot should, first of all, remind older people to take medication regularly, ensure their safety, monitor the user’s health status and their environment, provide cognitive training and encourage users to maintain physical activity. In the students’ opinion, the robot should not be an older person’s companion but only act as an assistant. Nursing students scored significantly higher than medical students in several statements concerning everyday use of the robot – reminding about meals, monitoring the environment, providing advice about a healthy diet, monitoring the intake of food and fluids, and automatic “switch on” function. Nursing students were also more focused on social functions of the robot – encouraging to enhance contact with friends as well as reduction of the sense of loneliness and improvement of mood. Medical students were more aware of privacy issues in the statement concerning the possibility of switching off the robot in specific situations.
Conclusions:
Our study revealed a generally positive attitude of future doctors and nurses to the assistive robot, which can have an impact on its acceptance by older adults. In the future, medical professionals could help their patients to choose the right robot (and necessary functions), best suited to their needs. However, this would require expanding the curriculum to include the issues of gerontechnology.
Citation
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Copyright
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