A qualitative exploration of care homes workers' views and training needs in relation to the use of socially assistive humanoid robots in their workplace

Aim The study aimed to explore the views and attitudes of care home workers about the socially assistive robot that was trialled in their workplace, in order to identify training needs in relation to the hypothetical future use of these robots in their workplace. Background Care home workers face challenging workload conditions which may require the exploration of new solutions such as the use of socially assistive robots (SARs). Methods This is a qualitative descriptive study which used semi-structured interviews. Care home workers (n = 23) in the UK participated in the study, and data collection took place between October 2019 and January 2020. NVivo software was used for data management, and a thematic inductive analysis was conducted. Results Findings indicated that many participants were open to the use of robots and valued the potential usefulness of SARs in the care setting. However, some participants showed resistance to the use of robots and did not feel comfortable with the idea of working alongside them. Participants wished to receive technical training that would enable them to be competent in using SARs. Participants took seriously their duty of care to the older people and thus wanted to ensure that the use of the SAR would not negatively impact on the care being provided. Robots were viewed as having potential to be supplementary to human carers, such as sharing the workload and improving upon the care already being provided. Conclusions Care home workers express both positive and negative views in relation to the hypothetical future deployment of socially assistive humanoid robots in their workplace. Implications for practice The findings highlighted the importance of values around person-centred care which should be taken into account when planning for the implementation of robots in social care settings and training care home workers in how to work with robots.