Finnish healthcare professionals' attitudes towards robots: Reflections on a population sample

AIM: To answer the question: ‘How prepared healthcare professionals are to take robots as their assistants in terms of experience and acceptance?’ BACKGROUND: The ageing population, increasing care needs and shortage of healthcare professionals pose major challenges in Western societies. Special service robots designed for care tasks have been introduced as one solution to these problems. DESIGN: A correlative design METHODS: Eurobarometer data (N = 969) and survey data of nurses and other healthcare professionals (N = 3800) were used to assess the relationship between robot acceptance and experiences with robots while controlling for the respondents’ age, gender, occupational status and managerial experience. RESULTS: Healthcare professionals had less experience with robots and more negative attitudes towards them than the general population. However, in healthcare, robot assistance was welcomed for certain tasks. These regarded, for example, heavy lifting and logistics. Previous experiences with robots were consistently correlated with robot acceptance.