Sealing the deal?

Abstract

This chapter reports on findings of a small-scale research project that examines how care practitioners (n = 6) in an Irish dementia care setting have experienced a social robot, Paro. Drawing on Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) the chapter explores how the incorporation of a robot into the care workplace might affect everyday professional practice. The chapter briefly defines ‘social robot’ and introduces Paro, a robot designed to resemble a baby harp seal. It outlines benefits and potential concerns in relation to use of social robotics in the provision of care, but notes the relative paucity of research from the practitioner perspective. Participants in this study describe how they have worked with Paro and their service users; these accounts are interpreted within the NPT framework to explore how use of the social robot was incorporated into everyday care work. The chapter concludes that successful introduction of a social robot into the care workplace will be based in the existing tacit and embodied knowledge of the practice of care, but that formal and informal supports (such as training programmes, user guides, and user groups) are also necessary to allow care practitioners to make best use of these innovative technologies.