2023-10, Wespi, Rafael, Birrenbach, Tanja, Schauber, Stefan K., Manser, Tanja, Sauter, Thomas C., Kämmer, Juliane E.

2018, Clack, Lauren, Passerini, Siomone, Sax, Hugo, Manser, Tanja

2013-02-20T00:00:00Z, Briner, Matthias, Kessler, Oliver, Pfeiffer, Yvonne, Wehner, Theo, Manser, Tanja

2023-05-01, Tanner, Alexandra, Urech, Andreas, Schulze, Hartmut, Manser, Tanja

Promoting the well-being of older adults in an aging society requires new solutions. One resource might be the use of social robots for group activities that promote physical and cognitive stimulation. Engaging in a robot-assisted group activity may help in the slowdown of physical and cognitive decline in older adults. Currently, our knowledge is limited on whether older adults engage in group activities with humanlike social robots and whether they experience a positive affect while doing so. Both are necessary preconditions to achieve the intended effects of a group activity. Our pilot study has 2 aims. First, we aimed to develop and pilot an observational coding scheme for robot-assisted group activities because self-report data on engagement and mood of nursing home residents are often difficult to obtain, and the existing observation instruments do have limitations. Second, we aimed to investigate older adults’ engagement and mood during robot-assisted group activities in 4 different nursing care homes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. We developed an observation system, inspired by existing tools, for a structured observation of engagement and mood of older adults during a robot-assisted group activity. In this study, 85 older adult residents from 4 different care homes in Switzerland participated in 5 robot-assisted group activity sessions, and they were observed using our developed system. The data were collected in the form of video clips that were assessed by 2 raters regarding engagement (direction of gaze, posture as well as body expression, and activity) and mood (positive and negative affects). Both variables were rated on a 5-point rating scale. Our pilot study findings show that the engagement and mood of older adults can be assessed reliably by using the proposed observational coding scheme. Most participants actively engaged in robot-assisted group activities (mean 4.19, SD 0.47; median 4.0). The variables used to measure engagement were direction of gaze (mean 4.65, SD 0.49; median 5.0), posture and body expression (mean 4.03, SD 0.71; median 4.0), and activity (mean 3.90, SD 0.65; median 4.0). Further, we observed mainly positive affects in this group. Almost no negative affect was observed (mean 1.13, SD 0.20; median 1.0), while the positive affect (mean 3.22, SD 0.55; median 3.2) was high. The developed observational coding system can be used and further developed in future studies on robot-assisted group activities in the nursing home context and potentially in other settings. Additionally, our pilot study indicates that cognitive and physical stimulation of older adults can be promoted by social robots in a group setting. This finding encourages future technological development and improvement of social robots and points to the potential of observational research to systematically evaluate such developments.

2013-02-27T00:00:00Z, Briner, Matthias, Manser, Tanja

2013-02-20T00:00:00Z, Manser, Tanja, Kessler, Oliver, Wehner, Theo, Pfeiffer, Yvonne, Briner, Matthias

2020-10, Burtscher, Michael J., Nussbeck, Fridtjof W., Sevdalis, Nick, Gisin, Stefan, Manser, Tanja

Communication and coordination represent central processes in healthcare action teams. However, we have a limited understanding of how expertise affects these processes and to what extent these effects are shaped by interprofessional differences. The current study addresses these questions by jointly investigating the influence of different aspects of expertise – individual expertise, team familiarity, and expertise asymmetry – on coordination quality and communication openness. We tested our propositions in two hospitals: one in Switzerland (CH, Sample 1) and one in the United Kingdom (UK, Sample 2). Both samples included two-person anesthesia action teams consisting of a physician and a nurse ( NCH = 47 teams, NUK = 48 teams). We used a correlational design with two measurement points (i.e., pre- and postoperation). To consider potential interprofessional differences, we analyzed our data with actor-partner interdependence models. Moreover, we explored differences in the effects of expertise between both hospitals. Our findings suggest that nurses’ expertise is the most important predictor of coordination quality and communication openness. Overall, differences between the two hospitals were more prevalent than interprofessional differences between physicians and nurses. The current study provides a nuanced picture of the effects of expertise, and thereby extends our understanding of interprofessional teamwork.

2013-02-20T00:00:00Z, Briner, Matthias, Kessler, Oliver, Pfeiffer, Yvonne, Wehner, Theo, Manser, Tanja

2013-02-01T00:00:00Z, Briner, Matthias, Manser, Tanja, Kessler, Oliver