The Effects of Introducing Communicative Robots with Infra-red Radiation Monitoring System on Night Shift Duties of Nursing Facility Care Worker

Abstract

The impacts of robots and ICT in care settings have not been sufficiently evaluated, particularly in relation to workers' workload. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate quantitatively the effects of introducing communicative robots on night shift duties of nursing facility workers. The subjects are five late-night care workers, looking after elderly people to whom communicative robots with an infra-red radiation monitoring system was introduced. We investigated fatigue level using the ‘method for checking subjective symptoms”. Assessments were conducted at the beginning of the night shift (16:30), before dinner (20:00), before nap (00:00), after nap (02:00) and at the end of the night shift (09:50) before and 4 weeks after introduction. The effects of the system on the nighttime work burden and frequency of accidents were compared. During the fourth week, compared with the pre-introduction phase, the total fatigue level was improved before nap (p < 0.05), after nap (p < 0.05), and the end of the night shift (p < 0.001). Along with this improvement, the accidents especially the trauma accidents decreased. The introduction of a communicative robot with a monitoring system significantly improved the total fatigue level of late night nursing care workers and alleviated the nighttime work workload.