The Increasing Centrality of Robotic Technology in the Context of Nursing Care: Bioethical Implications Analyzed through a Scoping Review Approach

Table 3

Summary of the key findings obtained from the review of the 14 selected articles.

Author(s)	Title	Author(s)’ country	Year of publication	Type of article and study design (if applicable)	Aims	Key findings that relate to the scoping review question
Descriptive articles with literature review
Fuji et al. [19]	Discussion of nursing robots’ capability and ethical issues	Japan-USA	2014	Traditional literature review	Discussing the ethical implications associated with the use of robots in the nursing setting	The widespread use of robots in nursing is an unstoppable and rapidly evolving phenomenon, so it is necessary to identify a way for humans and robots to interact effectively.
Metzler et al. [22]	Could robots become authentic companions in nursing care?	USA	2016	Traditional literature review	Understanding whether robots can effectively fit within the nursing relationship	Robots may not currently be eligible to take an active role in the caregiving relationship.
Barcaro [23]	Ethics of care and robot caregivers	Slovenia-Italy	2018	Traditional literature review	Exploring new ways of caring for humans using robotic assistants considering the ethical issues/questions of respecting the human dignity	It is essential that we implement collaboration between human nurses and assistive and social robots, with a view to making the most of robotic resources, which are often superior to human ones.
Bulfin et al. [26]	Anne Boykin Institute for the advancement of caring in nursing use of robots to complement caring relationships in nursing position paper	USA	2019	Position paper	Giving an interpretive reading relative to the role of robots in assisting the nursing staff	Nurses must have an active and proactive role in defining the role of robots in nursing care.
Grobbel et al. [27]	Designing nursing care practices complemented by robots: ethical implications and application of caring frameworks	USA-Netherlands	2019	Traditional literature review	Exploring the ethical framework of the care-centred value-sensitive design (CCVSD) and the role that robots can play within it	Nurses must take the lead and define how robots should be used in clinical practice, to protect the sacred nurse-patient relationship.
Robson [24]	Intelligent machines, care work and the nature of practical reasoning	UK	2019	Traditional literature review	Exploring issues of the moral status and limitations of machines in the context of care based on the principles of MacIntyre’s philosophy	Robots, regardless of the level of technological advancement, cannot be moral agents, and thus cannot care.
Christoforou et al. [20]	The upcoming role for nursing and assistive robotics: opportunities and challenges ahead	Cyprus	2020	Survey research. The study was conducted through the administration of a questionnaire to 115 students and alumni of the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) in September 2019.	Providing an overview of today’s nursing and care robotics landscape, highlighting the benefits associated with the adoption of such solutions in clinical practice, and identifying the major challenges facing the healthcare system in the future	The interviewees expressed a marked inclination to enter a nursing context characterised by a collaboration between men and robots, especially considering the possibility of delegating to the latter the less clinical and more boring tasks related to nursing care.
Servaty et al. [21]	Implementation of robotic devices in nursing care. Barriers and facilitators: an integrative review	Germany	2020	Integrative review	Identifying the main barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of robotic systems in nursing	The facilitating elements identified were adapting robot functions to the needs of users; individuals’ positive attitude towards technology; positive feelings towards the devices; acceptance of end users; active involvement of healthcare teamwork; considering technology as a source of support for nurses and physicians; and a clear identification of roles, responsibilities, and expectations.
Yew [28]	Trust in and ethical design of carebots: the case for ethics of care	Singapore	2020	Traditional literature review	Illustrating the challenges associated with the ethical use of assistive and social robots in healthcare	Tronto’s vision of care ethics, based on the principles of attentiveness to needs, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness, is the best model for integrating assistive and social robots into nursing care.
Stokes and Palmer [25]	Artificial intelligence and robotics in nursing: ethics of caring as a guide to dividing tasks between AI and humans	USA	2020	Traditional literature review	Understanding the most appropriate role that robots can play in the context of nursing care, taking care ethics theory as a basic ethical reference	Artificial intelligence, at least for the foreseeable future, does not possess the prerequisites to be able to care for the patient in the central sense of nursing ethics and caregiving, although it can fill minor tasks.
Articles proposing an ethical theory to facilitate the integration of robots into nursing care
Tanioka [29]	The development of the transactive relationship theory of nursing (TRETON): a nursing engagement model for persons and humanoid nursing robots	Japan	2017	Traditional literature review	Identifying a theoretical framework in which to incorporate human and robot collaboration in nursing care	The theoretical approach resulting from the fusion of the nursing as care (NAC) approach and the TCCN (technological competency as caring in nursing) model is represented by the TRETON.
Tanioka et al. [30]	Recommended design and direction of development for humanoid nursing robot’s perspective from nursing researchers
Locsin and Ito [31]	Can humanoid nurse robots replace human nurses?	Japan	2018	Traditional literature review	Describing issues about humanoid robots and their influences on the discipline and professional practice of nursing	The TCCN theory represents the ideal model to enable effective integration of robots within nursing care.
Schoenhofer et al. [32]	Engaging robots as nursing partners in caring: nursing as caring meets care-centred value-sensitive design	USA-Netherlands	2019	Traditional literature review	Finding a methodological approach adaptable to robotic nursing through the conjugation of the CCVSD model and the NAC model.	The theoretical approach resulting from the fusion of the CCVSD model and the NAC model is represented by the dance of living caring model, which is based on three principles: Intentional knowing of persons as caring, respecting and valuing persons as caring, and hearing and responding to calls for caring.