Can mobilising specialists be relieved by a robotic system for the early mobilisation of intensive-care patients? A quantitative longitudinal study at three data collection points at a German university hospital

Abstract Background: Immobility in intensive-care patients can lead to significant health risks and costs for the health system. Reasons for this include the shortage of specialist staff from nursing and physiotherapy who usually take over mobilisation activities for intensive-care patients. Use of robotic systems is to facilitate early mobilisation and thus counteract too-long immobility. Whether this can also relieve staff has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Methods: To investigate the psychological stress and behaviour of mobilising specialist during conventional and robot-assisted mobilisations of intensive-care patients and to draw conclusions regarding the burden and relief for the mobilising staff caused by the robotic system, a quantitative longitudinal study was conducted with three data collection points (T1, T2, T3). Aspects of body postures, stress perception of mobilising staff as well as the time and personnel mobilisation effort were collected in non-participatory standardised observations. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis of the observations of 35 conventional mobilisations (T1), 55 robot-assisted mobilisations (T2) by non-routine users, and 9 robot-assisted mobilisations by routine users (T3). Results: The duration of robot-assisted mobilisation had significantly longer process times in preparation, follow-up and execution phases than conventional mobilisation (median of total duration: T1: 16 minutes, T2/3: 46 minutes). Trial registration: clinicaltrials.org TRN: NCT05071248, Date: 2021/10/21 URL https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05071248