Perceptions About Nursing Practice Based on the Internet of Things: A Survey of Nursing Managers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of nursing managers about adopting nursing practices based on the Internet of Things and to examine related ethical issues. Questionnaires were sent to 538 nursing managers in Japan, with 131 responses. Of these, 87% and 33% agreed that a system using radio frequency identifiers would be useful for locating patients and nurses, respectively, 58%-81% recognized the value for patient safety of various camera systems for nursing observation, such as cameras linked to biometric alarms, 73% agreed the usefulness of automatically prioritizing alarms, but only around 39% were in favor of using facial recognition to help nursing observation. Many nursing managers expressed concerns about privacy. Data storage for at least 6 months was supported by 53% for location data and 41% for ceiling camera videos. Thus, nursing practice based on the Internet of Things is widely accepted in Japan.