A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the University of Tokyo, and Stanford University in California have found that patient care and worker retention improve when nursing homes acquire robots to assist in a variety of tasks.
As the nursing home industry faces high worker turnover and an aging population, many establishments have turned to robots. However, few studies have examined the effects of these technologies on the quality of patient care and employee retention.
Robots in Nursing Homes – Quality of Care
In this latest study, the researchers found that robot use was associated with higher quality of patient care, greater productivity, and increased employee retention.
Yong Suk Lee, Toshiaki Iizuka, and Karen Eggleston wrote about their study and findings in the peer-reviewed academic journal Labour Economics (citation below).
According to Yong Suk Lee, associate professor of technology, economy and global affairs at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, most studies of robots in the workplace have focused on the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
This new study was the first to look at how long-term care might be affected by different types of robots. They gathered and analyzed data from surveys of Japanese nursing homes taken from 2020 to 2022.
Prof. Lee, who was the study’s lead author, said:
“Our research focused on Japan because it is a super-aging society that provides a good example of what the future could entail elsewhere — a declining population, a growing share of senior citizens and a declining share of working-age people. We need to be ready for this new reality.”
In the US, for example, there were over 57 million US residents aged 65+ years in 2022, according to the National Council on Aging. This figure will probably rise to 88.5 million by 2050, the Census Bureau predicts.
The impact on workers
Prof. Lee believes that both workers and patients will benefit from the targeted use of robots in an aging society, where the percentage of people over 65 is steadily increasing.
In their study, the researchers analyzed three different types of robots that assisted living facilities are increasingly relying on:
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Transfer Robots
This type helps nurses and other healthcare professionals lift, move, and rotate patients in their beds and around rooms.
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Mobility Robots
These help patients move around – they improve people’s mobility. They also help patients bathe.
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Monitoring and Communication Robots
Technologies like cameras and bed sensors are used by these smart machines to track patient movements and provide important updates to caregivers.
Prof. Lee said:
“We found that robot adoption complements care workers by reducing quit rates. This is important because turnover is a big concern in nursing homes. Workers typically experience a great deal of physical pain, particularly in their knees and back.”
“The work is hard, and the pay is low. So, robot use was associated with employee retention.”
Robot use was linked to an overall increase in nursing home employment, Lee explained, but it seemed to benefit certain workers more than others.
There was a higher demand for part-time, less experienced employees, while the need for people with more experience decreased.
Improving patient care
The researchers found that patients benefited the most in nursing homes that used robots.
They reported that there was a decline in the use of patient restraints in the facilities they studied. There was also a decrease in pressure ulcers or bedsores that patients with mobility problems tend to develop over time.
They used both metrics – use of restraints and incidence of bedsores/ulcers in the long-term care industry to measure patient outcomes.
By reducing the physical demands of some tasks, Lee explained, robots may have allowed care workers to focus on activities that require human skills and interaction.
Prof. Lee explained:
“Robots can improve productivity by shifting the tasks performed by care workers to those involving human touch, empathy and dexterity. Ultimately, robots can help workers provide a higher level of patient care.”
“This research provides critical insights into how societies can successfully navigate the challenges of caring for aging populations”
Prof. Lee added:
“This research provides critical insights into how societies can successfully navigate the challenges of caring for aging populations. It will help inform the work of the long-term care industry and help us better understand how technologies impact workers and patients.”
Citation
Lee, Y. S., Iizuka, T., & Eggleston, K. (2025). Robots and labor in nursing homes. Labour Economics, 92, Article 102666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102666