Verifying the Usefulness of Monitoring Sensors Used by Caregivers in Nursing Homes

Abstract

Japan has become a rapidly aging country with a 21% rate of aging as of 2007. Everyone would like to have a situation where the elderly can live their daily lives without trouble. However, the elderly are more apt to develop health problems, and there are more than a few elderly who need care. As the elderly increase as a percentage of the total population, the issue of their care continues to arise. Furthermore, as the number of elderly who need care increases, the lack of caregivers able to deliver that care becomes an issue. Under these conditions, we need to relieve the burden on caregivers who are always short-handed at care facilities, and to make sure that the facilities the care receivers are using are safe. We will report on monitoring sensors that allow caregivers to watch out for the elderly living in care facilities. The purpose of this research is to verify the usefulness of the existing monitoring sensor aids. As the Watch Over Sensor (WOS-114N) by King Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd. monitored people living in a care facility, we gathered data and analyzed that data both quantitatively and qualitatively. The monitoring sensors are installed in the rooms of people living in the care facility who need monitoring, so that the movements of the person can be viewed. Data can be sent to the caregiver’s cellphone, so that while they are tending to another person, the caregiver can check on the image of the other care receiver. As a result, by using the monitoring sensors, it is suggested that the burden on the caregiver is lessened while contributing to enhanced safety of the person living in the facility. However, a large amount of noise has been detected through the data. By checking the appearance of noise at the same time as the accumulated video data, it became clear that there was a problem with the environment in which the monitoring sensors were installed. Also, because the caregivers were not familiar with how to use the sensors, it was suggested that the original monitoring system may not have been used properly. The results show that even if existing nursing-care equipment is commercially available, the maximization of its abilities depends on the people closest to it at the nursing care facility continually checking on the efficacy of the product. Only showing the proper way to use it to the caregivers at the facility, there are possibilities of wrong usage or barriers for the proper usage that developers won’t be able to find. Also, even if you explain the system to the caregivers, it should be assumed that these people who are busy day after day may not have time to deeply read the manual. It is necessary to think of a different and easy-to-understand way of explaining the method for using the equipment. abstract should summarize the contents of the paper in short terms, i.e. 150–250 words.