Helma Bleses

Prof. Dr. Helma Bleses is a Professor of Nursing Science and Clinical Nursing at the Department of Nursing and Health at Hochschule Fulda, where she has been employed since October 2006. Her work focuses on the intersection of nursing science, technology, and patient-centered care, with particular emphasis on dementia care and human-machine interaction in healthcare settings.

Dr. Bleses holds a Doctorate in Nursing Science from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (2005). Prior to her professorship, she served as Head of the Organizational Development Department at Gemeinschaftsklinikum Koblenz – Mayen (2006) and as a Personnel Development and Public Relations Officer at St. Elisabeth Hospital Mayen GmbH (1996-2005). She completed her nursing studies at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, graduating with a Diploma, and has additional qualifications in quality management and logotherapy.

Her research primarily explores patient/person orientation, organizational development, and human-machine interaction in healthcare, with a special focus on dementia care. She has pioneered work on telepresence robotics in home care settings for people with dementia, examining both technical implementation and ethical considerations. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates nursing science with technology development to create more person-centered care solutions.

Dr. Bleses' publication record shows a clear trajectory toward integrating technology into nursing practice, particularly in dementia care. Her most recent work focuses on ethnographic studies of care situations without direct human caregivers, examining how technology can support rather than replace human connection. She has been instrumental in developing frameworks for ethical implementation of care robotics and understanding the nuanced interactions between people with dementia and technological aids.

• 1st Prize of the Nursing Journal 2015 provided by the Josef and Luise Kraft Foundation

Dr. Bleses has secured significant third-party funding for research projects including FreiZeit (DFG/SNF), EthiKo, Akt-on, RoboLand, EmoRobot, and EMOTi-KOMM. She has supervised numerous student research projects, particularly in the fields of dementia care, quality management, and technology implementation. Her work often involves interdisciplinary collaboration with computer scientists, ethicists, and healthcare practitioners.

Dr. Bleses leads research teams working on the FreiZeit project (exploring experiences of persons with dementia in care-free time) and has been instrumental in establishing research collaborations between Hochschule Fulda and international partners including Hochschule St. Gallen (Switzerland), University of Dortmund, and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. Her work with the RoboLand and EmoRobot projects has created a strong foundation for human-robot interaction research in nursing contexts.