Mentor Areas
PARO (Person Al Robot), a robotic seal, is a relatively new therapeutic robot out of Japan currently being used in the community and long term care settings to comfort persons with disabilities exhibiting agitation and restlessness. We will be investigating the benefits of PARO on the Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) Unit. The hope is that two one hour interactions with PARO on the ACE unit can decrease the used of psychoactive medications, use of 1:1 sitters and length of stay in persons with dementia and/or delirium. This observational study requires significant effort to avoid cross contamination in the acute care setting. Therefore there is an extensive cleaning protocol involved.
Description:
We are testing the efficacy of the PARO robotic seal to decreased agitation and restlessness in persons with dementia and/or delirium on the Acute Care of the Elderly Unit at Penn Presbyterian. The student's participation would include
- Completing social behavioral Citi Training
- Interacting with older adults with PARO
- Scoring the interaction on two scales every 10 minutes during an hour long intervention, and 10 minutes after the intervention
- Cleaning PARO after each visit with an older adult based on an evidence based protocol
Preferred Qualifications
- Citi Training
- Experience with RedCap
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.