Humans have made great and significant strides when it comes to technological innovations and advancement. These technological applications, systems, and innovations have found their way into almost all spheres of human life. Perhaps one of the spheres that have had the greatest technological impact is the healthcare sector. In this era, it is possible to employ technological solutions to solve and deal with almost any aspect of the medical discourse. The epitome of this technological innovation is the creation of robots, which can work independently, or in collaboration with human personnel to solve healthcare issues. Some of the areas that make use of the robots are medication administration, telemedicine, aiding children with autism and lifting and transferring patients. While the use of robotics is seen as an alternative to human effort, critics feel that they can never replace human touch, which is emotive and personalized.
Robots are considered as emotionless creations, which can work under harsh and demanding conditions, unlike humans. In this case, making use of robots can enhance delivery of healthcare services around the clock. More so, robots, unlike their human counterparts, do not demand any compensation, which may come in the way of offering effective health care services. While the humans can refuse to attend to patients due to unmet needs, the robots will continue working thus helping healthcare institutions to cut down on operational costs. Additionally, the use of robots in healthcare helps reduce nurse burnout, which is a result of repetitive and boring tasks. A study by Garmann-Johnsen, Mettler, and Sprener (2014) revealed that for every patient added to a nurse, the mortality rate increased by 7 percent. Nonetheless, the use of robots can help avert this disappointing trend. As a result, there is a great likelihood of effective service delivery.
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The use of robotics in healthcare services delivery is a welcome relief for healthcare organizations and institutions, which handle a large number of patients. The staff in such hospital may become exhausted due to the demanding nature of such health institutions. However incorporating the use of robotics and human staff, helps reduce the workload to significant levels. In essence, robotics and human staff complement each other rather than compete with each other culminating to ore effectiveness and efficiency (Sio and Wynsberghe, 2016). For example, some healthcare institutions have made use of robots to help healthcare workers with low skills attend to patients even in the absence high skilled workers and doctors. Furthermore, the humans can achieve more by sharing the demanding and labor-intensive tasks with the robotics. In this way more is achieved in the shortest time possible
While the use of robotics in healthcare institutions and system is a welcome relief, some individuals feel that this is a bad idea. The fact that robots are emotionless removes the much-needed human touch from the medical professional. Machines can do the physical tasks of attending to the patients, but they cannot appeal to the patients' senses. Patients need constant reassuring which human professionals can only provide. According to Dahl and Boulos (2013), the use of robotics may put the lives of the patients in danger as the robotics can be manipulated to do the opposite of what is required. Additionally, some individuals feel that robots in the healthcare sector are a bad choice, as they would lead to reduced job opportunities. The jobs that individuals without degrees used to do are now being done by these robotics. The fact that robots can do these tasks in a cheaper and faster manner has made employees to prefer them to humans creating a lot of resentment.
The opponents’ claims are based on minor issues which can be complemented by the available staff. The robots are effective ways of ensuring that the patients get an all-rounded healthcare service delivery. The fact that they are emotionless des not discredits their ability to offer the much-needed healthcare services. In fact, the presence of emotions on the part of the humans can be a barrier to offering effective healthcare services. Some healthcare professionals rely on their emotions when taking care of patients. In fact, it is not a new thing to find healthcare professionals yelling and abusing patients, which come in the way of service delivery. In essence, the robots being emotionless would never threaten or yell at the patients, which create a better chance of recovery (Stahl and Coeckelbergh, 2016). The robots are contrary to the common belief that they steal jobs, in turn, create more jobs as they require maintenance and regular repair. According to Qureshi and Syed (2014), the robotics industry has created over 170,000 jobs across the globe. As such, resentment from the nursing professionals should not be there as the robotics complement their work rather than take it away.
In conclusion, the use of robots in the healthcare system creates a significant debate on their acceptability and efficiency. While some feel that robots are a welcome relief in helping deal with the demanding healthcare needs, others feel that the robots may inhibit healthcare delivery. In essence, robots are emotionless meaning that they can handle numerous, repetitive and boring tasks without experiencing burnout. More so, they are cheap to maintain which can help cut down costs. However, robots cannot appeal to their patients' emotions and senses which plays a major role in the healing process. Additionally, they can be manipulated to alter the recommended healthcare services thus compromising on healthcare delivery. Nonetheless, the healthcare institutions should consider making use of the robots alongside the healthcare professionals. In this way, they can tap the best of the robotics abilities and complement on the healthcare professionals’ abilities. In essence, the robots have a lot they can offer to ensure quality, reliable and effective healthcare delivery in healthcare institutions across the globe.
References
Dahl, T. S. & Boulos, M. N. K. (2013). Robots in health and social care: A complementary technology to home care and telehealthcare? Robotics, 2013 (3), 1-21.
Garmann-Johnsen, N. F., Mettler, T. & Sprener, M. (2014). Service robotics in healthcare: A perspective for information systems researchers? Thirty-Fifth International Conference on Information Systems, Auckland 2014.
Qureshi, M. O. & Syed, R.S. (2014). The impact of robotics on employment and motivation of employees in the service sector, with special reference to health care. Safety and Health at Work, 5 (4), 198–202.
Sio, F.S. & Wynsberghe, A. (2016). When should we use care robots? The nature-of-activities approach. Science and Engineering Ethics, 22(6), 1745–1760 .
Stahl, B. C. & Coeckelbergh, M. (2016). Ethics of healthcare robotics: Towards responsible research and innovation. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 86(2016), 152-161.
