McKnight’s Senior Living December 11, 2023
Today’s university healthcare students will be tomorrow’s senior caregivers. So how do these prospective nurses and staffers feel about the prospect of working alongside robots?
Students in disciplines related to health tech and healthcare are generally supportive of the idea of robot-aided senior care, believing the technology to be safe and even beneficial for fostering social interaction, according to a recent study.
The researchers focused on “telepresence” robots, which are largely roving screens that allow for telehealth or virtual conferencing with family members.
In their survey, the study identified six themes for how student participants viewed robots in the context of senior living:
- Robots as supplementary interaction
- Robots’ impact on privacy, confidentiality, and physical harm
- Residents’ mental...