Home care professionals' experiences of successful implementation, use and competence needs of robot for medication management in Finland

Aim: To describe home care professionals' individual experiences of the implementation, use and competence needs of a robot for medication management in older people's home care. Design: A qualitative focus group interview study. Methods: Data were collected during spring and autumn 2021 by semi-structured focus group interviews and analysed using inductive content analysis. The participants were 62 home care professionals working in older people's home care. Results: The successful implementation and use of the robot for medication management consisted of a timely and adequate introduction before the implementation of the robot, the fluent usability of the robot in daily work, and confidence in work competence. There is a need for the reorganization of home care professionals' use of digital solutions to make workflow fluent, prevent burnout and turnover among home care professionals. Professionals' competence should also be developed to ensure that it corresponds to digitalized healthcare.