Abstract
AimTo answer the question: ‘How prepared healthcare professionals are to take robots as their assistants in terms of experience and acceptance?’BackgroundThe ageing population, increasing care needs and shortage of healthcare professionals pose major challenges in Western societies. Special service robots designed for care tasks have been introduced as one solution to these problems.DesignA correlative designMethodsEurobarometer data (N = 969) and survey data of nurses and other healthcare professionals (N = 3800) were used to assess the relationship between robot acceptance and experiences with robots while controlling for the respondents’ age, gender, occupational status and managerial experience.ResultsHealthcare professionals had less experience with robots and more negative attitudes towards them than the general population. However, in healthcare, robot assistance was welcomed for certain tasks. These regarded, for example, heavy lifting and logistics. Previous experiences with robots were consistently correlated with robot acceptance.
Highlights
The ageing of the population, increasing care needs and probable shortage of healthcare workers pose major societal challenges in many Western societies
We examined healthcare professionals’ experiences with robots and how these experiences associate with the general view of robots (GVR) or robot acceptance at work (RAW)
Several differences were found between the population and healthcare professionals; it seems fruitful to study healthcare workers as a distinct robot user group
Summary
The ageing of the population, increasing care needs and probable shortage of healthcare workers pose major societal challenges in many Western societies. Robots are expected to alleviate the shortage of care professionals (Zsiga et al, 2013) and to increase the autonomy of elderly people (Sorell & Draper, 2014). Care robots are foreseen to be used as, for example, assistants that help with daily tasks like toileting, dressing and getting from a bed to a wheelchair (Pino, Boulay, Jouen, & Rigaud, 2015; Shin & Choo, 2011; Sparrow & Sparrow, 2006), increasing the autonomy of disabled persons or frail older people. 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). Apart from the ethical discussion, managers appreciated the image- elevating advantages that robotization would bring to their unit
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