¹Medizinische Fakultät der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Deutschland

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Background

To provide patients with contemporary and seamless care across sector boundaries – including geriatric early rehabilitation, outpatient, and residential care settings – it is advantageous to leverage existing innovative healthcare technologies. Examples for innovative healthcare technologies are digital assistance systems for movement monitoring in pressure ulcer prophylaxis or fall risk monitoring. Currently, these care innovation technologies predominantly employed as isolated, non- integrated solutions tailored to individual patients and used in a sporadic manner. To facilitate broader implementation, it is essential to analyse both the technological readiness of healthcare professionals to adopt these technologies and their actual usage in practice.

Objective

This study analysed the technology readiness by nursing staff and other professionals like physicians, therapists and psychologists involved in the care process in geriatric early rehabilitation, nursing homes and outpatient care services. In addition, usage of nursing innovation technologies, perceived usefulness and prerequisites for use in day-to-day care of innovation technologies were identified.

Material and method

Professionals involved in care processes were surveyed using questionnaires on their readiness to use technology. The prerequisites for implementation in the care process were surveyed. The standardized technology readiness questionnaire according to Neyer et al. [1] was used. This questionnaire on technology readiness is a 5-point Likert scale that covers the domains of technology acceptance, technology competence and technology control (range: 12 to 60 points). Sum values can be calculated for the (recoded) items of the individual facets or for all items for an overall score for readiness for technology. The perceived usefulness was surveyed on a scale of 1 to 10. The use of innovation technologies in nursing care were also surveyed using a paper-pencil questionnaire, as prerequisites for the use of innovation technologies in everyday nursing care was.

The employee representatives were informed about the survey, asked for their approval and agreed to it. All participants submitted a written declaration of consent.

Results

The professionals involved in care processes (n=97; 72% female) showed a moderate technology readiness (M = 42.8 ± 7.3). Individuals engaged in clinical care processes demonstrated a marginally (d=0.36) higher level of technology readiness (43.3 ± 7.2) compared to those involved in nursing home or outpatient care settings (40.7 ± 7.3).

Around a third of respondents are aware of innovative technologies for falls, pressure ulcers, disorientation, blood sugar monitoring and vital sign monitoring. However, there is hardly any experience in using these technologies. Less than a fifth have worked with technologies for disorientation or vital sign monitoring. The usefulness of several nursing innovation technologies was assessed as moderate to high (M=7.2 to 8.4).

The professionals expected to benefit greatly from selected care innovation technologies under certain conditions, such as ‘sufficient quantity personnel’, ‘ease of use’ and ‘automatic transfer of results to care documentation’.

Conclusion

The findings of this analysis indicate that the current levels of technological readiness and utilization among healthcare professionals across geriatric early rehabilitation, outpatient, and residential care settings are promising.

Future perspectives – what about technology readiness in acute geriatrics?

Professionals’ readiness to use technology for care processes in acute geriatrics is being investigated in the SmartRoll study as part of the SmartRoll project (BMBF funded; duration January 2025 to October 2026). The project SmartRoll is a research and development project in which a smart walker, an innovative mobility health technology, is being developed up to technology readiness level 6. This project emphasizes the integration of the perspectives of end-users – individuals who are potential users of the smart walker – into the development process. The team comprises health scientists specializing in orthopaedics and sports medicine, rehabilitation scientists, and mechatronics engineers, representing both a university/university of applied sciences and a plastics processing company. The intended users of the smart walker are primarily older patients in acute geriatric care at a German university hospital. Additionally, the device is designed to be utilized by professional caregivers and physiotherapists working within the same institution. As part of the requirements analysis in the accompanying development study, the technological readiness of both the older patients and the healthcare professionals – including caregivers and physiotherapists – will be assessed.

The aim of the requirement analysis is to evaluate the technological readiness and the needs of these end-users to adopt and effectively utilize this innovative health technology in their clinical practice.

References

[1] Neyer FJ, Felber J, Gebhardt C. Entwicklung und Validierung einer Kurzskala zur Erfassung von Technikbereitschaft. Diagnostica. 2016;58(2):87-99. DOI: 10.1026/0012-1924/a000067
[2] Strutz N, Kuntz S, Lahmann N, Steinert A. Analyse der Technikbereitschaft und -nutzung von Pflegeinnovationstechnologien von Mitarbeiter*innen im Pflegeprozess. HBScience. 2020;11:27-34. DOI: 10.1007/s16024-020-00339-3
[3] Strutz N, Meyer-Feil T, Schwesig R, Schulze S, Gissendanner H. Development of a Smart Walker for clinical settings: A Mixed-Methods Study Protocol. BMJ Open. [under review]. Registered at OSF. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CTPF4