First Integration of a Service Robot and a Communication Application into a Nursing Isolation Setting – An Observational Study Evaluating Walking Distances, Stress and Radiation Doses

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Abstract Nurses spend a significant proportion of a workday on non-nursing or auxiliary tasks, mainly due to the unilateral patient call system. This leads to work interruptions, a decrease in quality of care and stress for nurses. One approach for relieving nurses is the integration of new technologies. We performed an interventional study for seven months in a nuclear medicine station in a maximum care hospital, where we integrated a smartphone app for patient-staff communication in combination with a service robot for delivery of non-nursing and service items and evaluated the effects on walking distances and stress. We also examined the radiation dose to the nursing staff. To this purpose, we observed nurses at nine different time points for six shifts to measure walking distances and interruptions. Additionally, nurses and service personnel completed a questionnaire adapted from the NASA RAW TLX at the end of each shift to assess stress. Short walking distances accounted for the largest share of the caregivers’ walking distances. There was no direct effect of the technique on stress levels and walking distances, only a shift towards shorter walking distances with longer implementation. The total number of walking distances seemed to be proportional to the feeling of interruption and the individually experienced stress. This first use of the combined technology implementation in the acute clinic worked well. While this work provides an initial indication of where the implementation of this combined technology could potentially relieve the burden on nurses and service staff, further research is needed to establish causal relationships.