A Review of Exoskeletons Considering Nurses

Abstract

Daily tasks of nurses include manual handling to assist patients. Repetitive manual handling leads to high risk of injuries due to the loads on nurses' bodies. Nurses, in hospitals and care homes, can benefit from the advances in exoskeleton technology assisting their manual handling tasks. There are already exoskeletons both in the market and in the research area made to assist physical workers to handle heavy loads. However, those exoskeletons are mostly designed for men, as most physical workers are men, whereas most nurses are women. In the case of nurses, they handle patients, a more delicate task than handling objects, and any such device used by nurses should easily be disinfected. In this study, the needs of nurses are examined, and a review of the state-of-the-art exoskeletons is conducted from the perspective of to what extent the existing technologies address the needs of nurses. Possible solutions and technologies and particularly the needs that have not been addressed by the existing technologies are discussed.

Keywords: care home; design; exoskeleton; healthcare; hospital; medical robotics; nurse; robotic assistance.

Figure 1

Assisting standing up in a bed, standing up from and sitting down in a wheel chair, requiring the career to bend at a distance [39]. Reproduced with permission from OrthoInfo. © American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. https://orthoinfo.org/.

Figure 2

Hydraulic Exoskeleton for carers involved in assistance and transfer for bathing patients [54]. Reprinted with permission from author [54].

Figure 3

Backbone pneumatic exoskeleton [63]. Reprinted with permission from IEEE. License Number: 5383570454208; license date: 7 September 2022.

Figure 4

Bio-mechanically-assistive garment prototype [57]. Reprinted with permission from IEEE. License Number: 5383600890958; license date: 7 September 2022.

Figure 5

Ultrasonic Motor-Powered Assisted Suit System [17]. Reprinted with permission from IEEE. License Number: 5383601211803; license date: 7 September 2022.

Figure 6

Sketch of the Conceptual Exoskeleton.