Acceptability and usability of a telepresence robot for geriatric primary care: A pilot

The adoption of care robots in home care—A survey on the attitudes of Finnish home care personnel

“…Also, consistent with the previous findings of Huryk (), a large proportion of home care personnel fear that the introduction of care robots would dehumanise the treatment of the older people. So, despite being situated in the context of home care, the study is in line with previous studies (Kristoffersson et al., ; Vermeersch et al., ) where healthcare personnel believe that a care robot will never replace a human, and with the study of Broadbent et al. () where healthcare personnel are doubtful about how a robot would be able to help the older people in highly personal tasks.…”

“…An examination of attitudes to robots also raises some technological challenges in the introduction of care robots. The current abilities of care robots are still limited (Bouwhuis, ), and there are various development needs that need to be addressed before robots are able to help the older people with their daily activities (Vermeersch et al., ). Home care work includes a wide variety of tasks, and each person's situation and needs are different, as are the individual homes in which they live.…”

“…There are various development needs which need to be achieved, before robots are able to help the older people with their daily activities (Vermeersch, Sampsel, & Kleman, ). According to previous research, healthcare personnel are sceptical towards care robots and are concerned that a care robot will never be able to replace a human (Kristoffersson, Coradeschi, Loutfi, & Severinsson‐Eklundh, ; Vermeersch et al., ). Healthcare personnel are also concerned about the safety and reliability of robots and are doubtful about how a robot would be able to help the older people in highly personal tasks (Broadbent et al., ).…”

“…Furthermore, healthcare personnel also think that it would be problematic if there were barriers (such as closed doors) between the robot and the resident (Broadbent et al., ). In addition, the older people are concerned about the robot breaking down (Vermeersch et al., ).…”

Demands of Dignity in Robotic Care

“…In a pilot study of a telepresence robot equipped with a stethoscope and remotely used by a nurse to make health checks on older adults, both the adults and the nurse accepted the robot to a high degree and the adults felt "as if the nurse was present." On the other hand, the usability of the robot was perceived as low and the nurses felt frustrated because they could not palpate or touch the patients (Vermeersch, Sampsel, and Kleman 2015). Telepresence may not be of equal quality to genuine human presence, but of course is better than no contact at all to other people.…”