Reduction of multiple-caregiver assistance through the long-term use of a transfer support robot in a nursing facility

ABSTRACT

The long-term use of transfer support robots in nursing facilities is an important option for improving the efficiency of care work. The “Resyone” transfer support robot is a combination of an electric care bed and a wheelchair, and the wheelchair half of the bed can be detached at the touch of a button. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the long-term use of Resyone would improve the performance of transfer assists, such as reducing the need for multiple caregivers. One Resyone was installed in a nursing facility in Japan and 17 caregivers used it for more than 11 months. The time and number of caregivers required for each transfer assist were surveyed for three 1-week periods: 1 week before (Phase 1) and at 3 weeks (Phase 2) and 11 months (Phase 3) after the introduction of Resyone. In Phase 1, approximately 60% of all transfer assists were performed by two caregivers, but in Phase 2, this was reduced to approximately 20%, and finally, in Phase 3, all transfer assists were performed by a single caregiver. These results suggested that the long-term use of Resyone was associated with improved work efficiency in transfer assistance in a nursing facility.

KEYWORDS:

• caregiver
• nursing facility
• physical burden
• transfer support robot
• work efficiency

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of “Ai-ko Home Obu-en,” a special nursing home for the elderly, for their cooperation. We also thank N. Hashimoto, A. Sugiyama, M. Chiso, and H. Nakamura for their technical support.

Author contributions

I.K. conceived the study. All authors designed the study. K.K., Y.T., K.A., K.S., and N.I. performed the study and data collection. K.K. and T.Y. analyzed the data, prepared the figure, and wrote the paper. All authors revised the manuscript.

Clinical trial registration

UMIN Clinical Trials Registry no. UMIN000039204. Trial registration date: January 21, 2020. Interventional study. Parallel, non-randomized, single blinded.

Consent to publish statement/form

All of the authors have contributed to this study and are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.

Declarations and ethics statements

Study protocols have been reviewed and approved by the Ethics and Conflicts of Interest Committee of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (acceptance no. 1275) and all participants provided written informed consent.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The datasets analyzed during the current study are not publicly available given that the research team has not completed its analysis, but are available from the corresponding author on request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development [Grant Number: 20he2002001h0003], Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [Grant Number: JP19K19899], and an institutional grant, Choju iryou kenkyu kaihatsuhi No. 19-5.