Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire and National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration East of England, United Kingdom.
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Soc Sci Med. 2022 Jan;292:114553. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114553. Epub 2021 Nov 6.
The provision of reassurance is seen as a goal and benefit of the use of assistive technology (AT) in supporting people to manage their health and care needs at a distance. Conceptually, reassurance in health and care settings remains under-theorised with the benefits of experiencing reassurance through technology use assumed rather than understood. UK health and social care service goals of managing safety and risk have largely been equated with providing reassurance to users of AT and their carers. What has not been explored is how reassurance is experienced variably by users of different types of technology-enabled care. We present data from 3 case studies of different technologies in use in health and social care provision, analysed through a postphenomenology and sociomaterial lens. Our findings point to reassurance as an important facet of AT provision but the intended functions and uses of technological devices alone did not account for people's experiences of reassurance. Participant narratives referred variously to the comfort of being monitored, having their illness/wellness verified by the device, feeling reassured by the promise of help if needed, and imbuing the device with symbolic meaning (when the user associated the device with meanings and functions other than its technical capabilities). The different ways in which reassurance was experienced provides a useful way of understanding the potential tensions with AT policy goals as well as the positive meaning attributed to devices in some cases. This study reaffirms the importance of AT implementation being anchored in what matters to the user.
在远程管理健康和护理需求方面，提供保证被视为辅助技术 (AT) 使用的目标和益处。从概念上讲，健康和护理环境中的保证仍然没有得到充分的理论化，通过技术使用获得保证的好处是假设的，而不是被理解的。英国卫生和社会保健服务的管理安全和风险的目标在很大程度上等同于为 AT 的使用者及其护理人员提供保证。尚未探讨的是，不同类型的技术如何为不同类型的技术使用者带来不同的保证体验。我们通过后现象学和社会物质学的视角，展示了来自健康和社会保健服务中使用的三种不同技术的案例研究数据。我们的研究结果表明，保证是 AT 提供的一个重要方面，但技术设备的预期功能和用途本身并不能解释人们对保证的体验。参与者的叙述提到了被监测的舒适感、设备验证疾病/健康状况的感觉、在需要帮助时感到放心的感觉，以及赋予设备象征意义的感觉（当用户将设备与技术能力以外的意义和功能联系起来时）。保证的不同体验方式为理解与 AT 政策目标相关的潜在紧张关系以及在某些情况下赋予设备积极意义提供了有用的方法。这项研究重申了将 AT 实施与用户关心的问题联系起来的重要性。
