Healthcare professionals (HCPs) face increasing occupational stress and burnout. Supporting HCPs’ need for relatedness is fundamental to their psychological wellbeing and resilience. However, how technologies could support HCPs’ relatedness in the workplace remains less explored. This study incorporated semi-structured interviews (n = 15) and co-design workshops (n = 21) with HCPs working in the UK National Health Service (NHS), to explore their current practices and preferences for workplace relatedness support, and how technology could be utilized to benefit relatedness. Qualitative analysis yielded a four-layer model of HCPs’ relatedness need, which includes Informal Interactions, Camaraderie and Bond, Community and Organizational Care, and Shared Identity. Workshops generated eight design concepts (e.g., Playful Encounter, Collocated Action, and Memories and Stories) that operationalize the four relatedness need layers. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical relevance, practical design implications, and the necessity to strengthen relatedness support for HCPs in the era of digitalization and artificial intelligence.

We present the results of an online, video-based experimental study investigating the impact of robot agency on perceptions of a socially assistive robot (SAR) shown supporting in-home care. We consider two key participant groups: care givers and care receivers. We did not find significant results regarding the impact of agency on overall participant perceptions of the SAR, but we did identify some differences in what these two participant groups might perceive as being best for themselves versus each other. Firstly, care givers perceived more potential benefit from the robot than care receivers did, challenging possible assumptions about who is set to gain most from deployment of these systems. Secondly, care receivers generally perceived the lower agency robot as being more beneficial for themselves, even as they ascribed the higher agency robot more potential to benefit care receivers.