Discussion
’ loneliness
CHRONIC DISEASES
This study aimed to examine the effect of using a robot for medication management on home care professionals’ use of working time. The study produced new knowledge about the effect of a digital solution on home care professionals’ use of working time for medication management. The total number of home visits decreased considerably in the IG group. This is because the home care professionals did not visit IG clients’ homes to administer medications, which is logical because the robot administrated the medications. However, the total time for medication management increased in the IG group. This is due to working time used for dispensing medications into the robot and medication education. It is noteworthy that after robot use, medication training included education about robot use for medication management. The clients might have needed education for robot use and not for medication management. More specifically, the home care professionals’ working time used for medication management concerning the number of visits per day decreased considerably. Thus, our results support our hypothesis that using a robot for medication management decreases the professionals’ use of working time in home care.Without robot use for medication management, the medication process could be a time-consuming task in daily home care, as reported in previous studies [Decreasing home visits due to the use of a robot for medication management raises ethical questions. For instance, robot use in home care can increase older home care clients’ loneliness [Based on previous studies, digital solutions for nursing care have influenced nurses’ working time [The results indicated that with the use of the robot for medication management, the time used for medication education increased. It occurred because after robot use, medication training included education about robot use for medication management. However, one essential question concerns the lack of medication education. Based on our results, in the CG group medication education decreased from baseline to 1-month and then increased from 1-month to 2-month effecting the total working time used for medication management. It might be that during the 1-month with a 5-day period, the clients didn’t have need for medication education or no new medications were prescribed for clients in the CG group and therefore, the time spent on medication education was lower.Among older home care clients, it is evident that they have various chronic diseases [