Abstract
There is growing interest in the implementation of delivery robots in healthcare, yet a lack of understanding remains regarding frontline clinicians’ views on the implementation of these robots. Limited research exists addressing the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of staff following the integration of delivery robots into clinical practice. Gaining insight into staff perspectives is essential for the effective integration and optimization of robots in healthcare settings.
This study aims to explore the perceptions of healthcare workers after the implementation of delivery robots within a large tertiary care hospital setting.
Guided by Bowden’s feasibility framework, a mixed methods design with a purposive sampling technique was used. After completing a brief Likert scale survey, participants joined a focus group of up to six participants lasting one hour. Diverse participants included clinical nurses, nurse leaders, unit clerks, pharmacists, and unlicensed technicians. Six semi-structured interview questions with nine potential probes were used. Data analysis is currently in progress – quantitative data is being descriptively analyzed using measures of central tendency with SPSS software; qualitative data is being analyzed using a manual inductive coding approach.
Twenty-nine participants across diverse clinical roles completed the pre-focus group survey and focus group session. One aspect of the early preliminary findings supported that people in certain clinical roles perceived the robots as more helpful than others in different clinical roles. Notably, unit nurse managers and unlicensed technicians were concordant that they perceived the robots offloaded some of their delivery tasks that they typically performed. These tasks included delivering small equipment, patient belongings, and medications. Because of the ability of the robot to offload some of their tasks, they expressed the robots were timesaving, valuable, and helpful in their daily workload.
Implementing delivery robots is a new, innovative approach that has the potential to support certain clinical roles in the hospital setting in which transporting equipment, medications, and patient belongings is a critical component of their daily tasks. Yet, the research is still in the beginning stages to understand how integrating delivery robots into nursing tasks could make an impact in workflows and patient care. More research is needed in this emerging area of science and clinical practice.
Notes
References:
Angleraud, A., Mehman Sefat, A., Netzev, M., & Pieters, R. (2021). Coordinating shared tasks in human-robot collaboration by commands. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8, 734548. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.734548
Bagheri, E., De Winter, J., & Vanderborght, B. (2022). Transparent interaction based learning for human-robot collaboration. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 9, 754955. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.754955
Baltrusch, S. J., Krause, F., de Vries, A. W., Van Dijk, W., & de Looze, M. P. (2022). What about the Human in Human Robot Collaboration? A literature review on HRC’s effects on aspects of job quality. Ergonomics, 65(5), 719-740. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2021.1984585
Brinkmann, A., Böhlen, C. F. V., Kowalski, C., Lau, S., Meyer, O., Diekmann, R., & Hein, A. (2022). Providing physical relief for nurses by collaborative robotics. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 8644. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12632-4
Kaluvakuri, S. (2022). Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Impact of Robotics on Health Services. Malaysian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 9(2), 41-50.
Kremer, L., Sen, S., & Breil, B. (2019). Relating factors for acceptance of health care technology: focus on mental workload. In MEDINFO 2019: Health and Wellbeing e-Networks for All (pp. 1953-1954). IOS Press.
Yan, Y., Su, H., & Jia, Y. (2023). Modeling and Analysis of Human Comfort in Human–Robot Collaboration. Biomimetics, 8(6), 464. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8060464
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Mixed/Multi Method Research
Keywords:
Acute Care, Emerging Technologies, Delivery Robots, Clinical Care
Recommended Citation
Spence, Amanda; Patterson, Kellie; Rogers, Stephanie; Merring, Paige; Bassett, Wendy; Roth, Stephanie; Taherzadeh, Sanaz; Smith Birkhoff, Susan; Abernathy, Briana; Rackie, Hannah; Mitchell, Erin; and Tallo, Morgan, "Navigating the Future: Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Cobot Integration in Hospitals" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 30.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/posters_2025/30
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-24
Funder(s)
American Nurses Foundation
Navigating the Future: Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Cobot Integration in Hospitals
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
There is growing interest in the implementation of delivery robots in healthcare, yet a lack of understanding remains regarding frontline clinicians’ views on the implementation of these robots. Limited research exists addressing the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of staff following the integration of delivery robots into clinical practice. Gaining insight into staff perspectives is essential for the effective integration and optimization of robots in healthcare settings.
This study aims to explore the perceptions of healthcare workers after the implementation of delivery robots within a large tertiary care hospital setting.
Guided by Bowden’s feasibility framework, a mixed methods design with a purposive sampling technique was used. After completing a brief Likert scale survey, participants joined a focus group of up to six participants lasting one hour. Diverse participants included clinical nurses, nurse leaders, unit clerks, pharmacists, and unlicensed technicians. Six semi-structured interview questions with nine potential probes were used. Data analysis is currently in progress – quantitative data is being descriptively analyzed using measures of central tendency with SPSS software; qualitative data is being analyzed using a manual inductive coding approach.
Twenty-nine participants across diverse clinical roles completed the pre-focus group survey and focus group session. One aspect of the early preliminary findings supported that people in certain clinical roles perceived the robots as more helpful than others in different clinical roles. Notably, unit nurse managers and unlicensed technicians were concordant that they perceived the robots offloaded some of their delivery tasks that they typically performed. These tasks included delivering small equipment, patient belongings, and medications. Because of the ability of the robot to offload some of their tasks, they expressed the robots were timesaving, valuable, and helpful in their daily workload.
Implementing delivery robots is a new, innovative approach that has the potential to support certain clinical roles in the hospital setting in which transporting equipment, medications, and patient belongings is a critical component of their daily tasks. Yet, the research is still in the beginning stages to understand how integrating delivery robots into nursing tasks could make an impact in workflows and patient care. More research is needed in this emerging area of science and clinical practice.
Description
This study aims to explore the perceptions of healthcare workers after the implementation of delivery robots within a large tertiary care hospital setting. Implementing delivery robots is a new, innovative approach that has the potential to support certain clinical roles in the hospital setting in which transporting equipment, medications, and patient belongings is a critical component of their daily tasks.