Robotic Helpers Easing Nurse Burnout Amid Pandemic Strain (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: The pandemic is taking a toll on nurses across the country, and many say they're still feeling the effects. Extreme burnout, exhaustion, and so much stress. Now, one CEO says she has a solution, robots. CBC's Andrea Day reports on a startup's creative way to give hospital staff a helping hand.

Speaker 2: Pardon me, may I get to that spot, please? Meet Moxie, the robot. Hello. A high-tech nurse's helper rolling through hospitals around the country. You'll see Moxie turn in the corner, and some patients and families are all turning heads, trying to figure out what this is. The bot, developed by Austin startup Diligent Robotics.

Speaker 3: We did not design Moxie to replace nurses. We actually are really focused on taking on some of the mundane tasks that fall onto clinicians' plate that can be automated.

Speaker 2: Like delivering meds and collecting lab samples.

Speaker 4: I have a delivery.

Speaker 2: Programmed to lessen the load on overworked nurses. Many of them pushed to the brink during the pandemic. What we did start seeing is definite burnout in our staff. They were tired, taking care of patients who were sicker than they've ever seen before, and patients dying, many. The chief nursing officer at Mary Washington Hospital in Virginia has three Moxies now helping out her team. We found that there were many things that nurses do that really don't require a nurse. I'm here to pick something up.

Speaker 3: We bring the Moxie robots in, and they have to learn the environment by demonstration.

Speaker 2: Moxie uses an AI navigation system and a robotic arm to help navigate doors and elevators.

Speaker 4: We need Moxie to either deliver something to us or pick something up from our unit to deliver elsewhere. We can call it on the kiosk.

Speaker 2: In minutes, Moxie responds to the call, loads up, and rolls away to deliver meds to another part of the hospital.

Speaker 4: I think it's really kind of lifted a weight off of some nurses' shoulders that they don't have to leave their sick patient that they're monitoring to go do these little tasks.

Speaker 2: Doman says all of Moxie's errands around the hospital have logged more than 100 miles. Miles, her nursing team, didn't have to walk themselves. That's sizable. That's had an impact. And Shep, Doman wouldn't talk about how much the hospital pays for Moxie, but did say it's a monthly service fee based on hours worked, and they see so much value in little Moxie, get this, they're planning to add a fourth one to the fleet.