ArticleBMC health services research2025
The impact of welfare technology on care ethics: a qualitative analysis of healthcare professionals and managers' experiences with welfare technologies.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Frontline providers' perspectives on ageing in place: negotiating older adults' self-responsibility, preventive services and community support.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Towards Caring Technologies in Older Adult Care Through the Co-Creation of an Ethical Process Guide.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Family caregivers' experiences in dementia villages: a model for sustainable and meaningful care.Frontiers in dementia · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundProviding healthcare for the elderly population is challenging due to a shortage of staff. The challenge is addressed by increased use of technology. The article explores the impact of welfare technology on healthcare personnel's care ethical considerations in Norway's primary healthcare sector. Through a qualitative study of how healthcare professionals, managers, and technology suppliers understand and perceive welfare technology in healthcare, we examine whether instrumental values displace care-ethical values in primary healthcare practices.
methodsThe study is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with healthcare workers, healthcare managers and technology suppliers in primary healthcare in Norway. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and quality developers at the municipal administrative level and healthcare managers and staff in healthcare units. Interviews with suppliers/manufacturers of welfare technology (GPS, pill dispensers and robotics) were also conducted. We combined an inductive approach with theoretical exploration as we alternated between the empirical data, a thematic approach, and theories of technology and care ethics.
resultsIn the analysis of the empirical material, we identified two overarching themes that were related to our research question: 1) demands and solutions and 2) two sides of autonomy. The informants generally highlighted the benefits of welfare technology, but the informants were also ambiguous about the use of welfare technology. Autonomy was seen as an important value but was attached with ambivalence.
conclusionCare ethical considerations are significantly present within healthcare professionals' understandings of technology even though managers and technology suppliers were advocating for welfare technology in a more instrumental sense. Despite extensive acclaim for user autonomy, healthcare personnel make decisions about care and technology use independently of the resource situation. They hold onto a professional room of freedom in between the patient's needs, available resources, and suitable technology. They are sceptical about applying technological solutions if they suspect it will lead to potentially adverse consequences, such as loneliness or increased insecurity due to technological illiteracy. By engaging a relational autonomy approach in their care practices, healthcare professionals control technology rather than submit to technology and we see that rather than being displaced by technical-economic reasoning, care ethical reasoning also accommodates technology.
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Registered trials
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