The Interactive Enactment of Care Technologies and its Implications for Human-Robot-Interaction in Care

Various technical innovations for the care sector, particularly robots, are being developed to cope with demographic change and to support nursing staff. A central issue for the successful integration of such technology into gerontological care practices has not yet been appropriately addressed from an HCI perspective. Here, we draw from observation of lifting devices, used to move residents between bed and chairs. We found that this process is always moderated and facilitated by caregivers' 'interaction work': The function(ing) of care technology is inseparable from the interactive practices of care staff enacting these functions and from the emotional labor inherent to care practice. The caregivers' verbal, manual and emotional actions, and also the residents' active cooperation in the process are important factors for safe, fluid, and pleasant human-machine interaction. We propose to understand such technical care settings as a triadic interaction, and to take account of this in the future design of care technologies, in particular for robotic solutions.