Virtual Reality in Residential Aged Care: a study of adoption and system complexity

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has been increasingly adopted by residential aged care facilities (RACFs) for enriching residents’ experiences. RACFs are sensitive settings with complex sociocultural elements, thus aged care providers might experience challenges when introducing new technologies. This paper presents findings from a descriptive analysis of survey responses exploring the complexity brought about by adopting VR in RACFs. By understanding technology-in-use as socio-technical systems, this study draws on the work of Greenhalgh et al. to understand how the adoption of health-care technologies is influenced by complexity across seven domains: condition, technology, value proposition, adopter(..