Impacts of a Care Robotics Project on Finnish Home Care Workers’ Attitudes towards Robots

Teemu Rantanen, Teppo Leppälahti, Jaakko Porokuokka and Sari Heikkinen
Additional contact information
Teemu Rantanen: Tikkurila Campus, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Ratatie 22, 01300 Vantaa, Finland
Teppo Leppälahti: Hyvinkää Campus, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Uudenmaankatu 22, 05800 Hyvinkää, Finland
Jaakko Porokuokka: The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Itämerenkatu 11-13, 00181 Helsinki, Finland
Sari Heikkinen: Tikkurila Campus, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Ratatie 22, 01300 Vantaa, Finland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Technological advances in elderly care have been rapid, and the introduction of robots in care will be a topical issue in the near future. There has been little research into the possibility of influencing care workers’ attitudes towards robots by project activities, and how to make the change easier for work communities. This study focuses on a robotics project that took place in elderly and home care services in one municipality in Finland (total of 45 care workers). During the project, four robotics workshops and one extended pilot session were implemented. The study follows quasi-experimental settings, and it included two measurements (before and after project activities) and a control group, but no randomization. The data were collected by questionnaires and were analyzed statistically. The project under study brought about minor positive changes in home care workers’ attitudes towards the usefulness of care robots. In the final measurement, the difference between the test group and the control group was significant in the two dimensions of positive attitudes. The research supports the hypothesis that project activities can be used to influence home care workers’ attitudes towards robots. This can also facilitate the introduction of care robots in home care services. However, the construction of a technology-positive care culture is a long-term process, which requires training and development, technological development and strong strategic management at various levels.

Keywords: attitude; care robot; elderly; home care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7176/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7176/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7176-:d:422037

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().