A Survey of Robotic Systems for Nursing Care

Abstract

An increase of the aging population with a decrease in the available nursing staff has been seen in recent years. These two factors combined present a challenging problem for the future and has since become a political issue in many countries. Technological advances in robotics have made its use possible in new application fields like care and thus it appears to be a viable technological avenue to address the projected nursing labor shortage. The introduction of robots in nursing care creates an active triangular collaboration between the patient, nurse, and robot, which makes this area significantly different from traditional human–robot interaction (HRI) settings. In this review, we identify 133 robotic systems addressing nursing. We classify them according to two schemes: 1) a technical classification extended to include both patient and nurse and 2) a novel data-derived hierarchical classification based on use cases. We then analyze their intersection and build a multidimensional view of the state of technology. With this analytical tool, we describe an observed skew of the distribution of systems and identify gaps for future research. We also describe a link between the novel hierarchical use case classification and the typical phases of nursing care from admission to recovery.

Mobile robots for isolation-room hospital settings: A scenario-based preliminary study

“…Using the periodic automated re-mapping function, it can serve as a nursing assistant by following preset routes in an isolation or reverse isolation environment to monitor patients in real-time and check on the safety of patients [35] . The usage of robots in the field of nursing should not be viewed as completely good or bad but from a variety of different perspectives [48] . Rather than the critical view that the introduction of robots violates nursing values, such as human dignity, personal privacy, autonomy, commitment, human relationship, compassion, and communication, a practical strategy is needed for integrating robotic technology into the area of patient care with open-mindedness and overcoming its shortcomings [46] .…”

Robots and care of the ageing self: An emerging economy of loneliness

“…There is a small scholarly industry of 'scoping reviews' on care robots for elderly persons, and these reviews invariably identify loneliness as a significant guiding rationale for the development and use of robots for the care of elderly persons (e.g. Agraz et al, 2022;Budak et al, 2021;Hung et al, 2022;Koh et al, 2021;Sather et al, 2021;Todd et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2022). In her biography of loneliness, historian Alberti (2019: vii) notes that we now find ourselves in the midst of a declared loneliness epidemic, necessitating the creation of the Minister of Loneliness in the UK in January 2018: 'Talking about loneliness seems to spread, contagion-like, until it has become part of the social fabric.…”

A Robotic System to Anchor a Patient in a Lateral Position and Reduce Nurses’ Physical Strain

“…Introducing a robot into nursing inevitably leads to a triangular relationship between the patient, the nurse, and the robot [13]. In our work, here, we concentrate on the nurse, who is to be physically relieved by the system we have developed.…”