Nursing Staff's Attitudes, Needs, and Preferences for Care Robots in Assisted Living Facilities: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Care robots have been proposed in response to nursing shortages in assisted living facilities (ALF), in which the population of older adults is growing. Although the use of care robots can improve the health of these older adults, their introduction fundamentally changes the work of nursing staff and has implications for the entire healthcare system. In the development of such gerotechnology, it is important to include end-users, but so far, the perspectives of nursing staff have largely been ignored. We have conducted a systematic review to examine the literature on nursing staff's attitudes, needs, and preferences for care robots in ALFs, to guide future research. Using the PRISMA method, we identified 15 publications. We found that nursing staff desire robots that can assist with physically demanding tasks and reduce workload. Further research is needed on nursing staff's concerns and the contextual factors that influence nursing staff's perspectives of care robots.