Establishing methods and analytical examples for empathic understanding as technological competency in nursing

The ageing population has become an increasing phenomenon world-wide, leading to a growing need for specialised help. Improving the quality of life of older people can lower the risk of depression and social isolation, but it requires a multi-dimensional approach through continuous monitoring and training of the main health domains (e.g., cognitive, motor, nutritional and behavioural). To this end, the use of mobile and e-health services tailored to the user’s needs can help stabilise their health conditions, in terms of physical, mental, and social capabilities. In this context, the INTESA project proposes a set of personalised monitoring and rehabilitation services for older people, based on mobile and wearable technologies ready to be used either at home or in residential long-term care facilities. We evaluated the proposed solution by deploying a suite of services in a nursing home and defining customised protocols to involve both guests (primary users) and nursing care personnel (secondary users). In this paper, we present the extended results obtained after the one-year period of experimentation in terms of technical reliability of the system, Quality of Experience, and user acceptance for both the user categories.