Investigating healthcare workers' technostress when welfare technology is introduced in long-term care facilities

Abstract

Welfare technology has recently reached older adults in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Many Swedish municipalities are introducing emerging technologies such as virtual reality, robotic assistive devices, and social robots in LTCFs as part of everyday care. However, not only older adults are affected by these deployments. Healthcare workers are left to master these technologies–and integrate them into existing care practices. Previous research has identified an increase in work-related stress associated with the introduction of technology for healthcare workers. The literature is, however, sparse on how healthcare workers in LTCFs are affected by the introduction. Therefore, we explored different factors that could affect healthcare workers’ technostress through an online survey and semi-structured interviews to get a deeper understanding of how healthcare workers are experiencing deployments of welfare technology. The main findings showed that some of the healthcare workers are finding it difficult to adopt and use welfare technology due to, for example, older age, language difficulties, or a negative attitude toward technology. We conclude that municipalities and LTCFs need to invest in their healthcare workers in order to achieve better on-boarding and reduce technostress.