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Welcome Direct Care Worker Pilot Study Participants!
KEY POINTS
- The Direct Care Worker Pilot Study is part of the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study.
- The study requires participation from direct care workers in the long-term care sector.
- This 30-minute web or mail survey is voluntary and confidential.
The National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study (NPALS) provides information on major sectors of paid, regulated post-acute and long-term care services providers and services users. The Direct Care Worker (DCW) Pilot Study will help the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) determine whether a national survey of direct care workers should be conducted regularly in the future. Study results would also be used to design the potential future survey.
About 300 direct care workers will be chosen for the DCW Pilot Study. Direct care workers include certified nursing assistants, nursing assistants, home health aides, home care aides, personal care aides, personal care assistants, and medication technicians or medication aides. Pilot study participants will be chosen from workers in residential care communities, adult day services centers, and nursing homes across the country.
The most reliable information comes directly from direct care workers. You can help us better understand direct care work and the people who provide it. That’s because you are one of about 760,000 direct care workers caring for more than 2.4 million services users at more than 51,000 facilities in the United States.
Direct care workers are an important part of long-term care. By participating in this pilot study, you help ensure that any future surveys of direct care workers will reflect current conditions. You’ll also help future surveys more accurately portray your job to healthcare planners and policymakers.
If you would like to participate in this important study, please call the DCW Pilot Study Help Desk at 866-214-2047.
If you participate, you will be asked to complete a 30-minute web or mail survey. The survey will ask you about your training, job history, work setting, wages, benefits, and family life.
Your participation in this survey is voluntary, and you can stop at any time. You do not have to answer any questions that make you feel uncomfortable.
Your information is kept confidential by Federal law. None of your personal information will be reported, including your name and the facility where you work. We will not give any information you provide to your supervisor or facility. Your answers will be grouped with answers given by other direct care workers. The survey results will be released in summary form in tables and reports only.
For more information about our commitment to keeping data private and confidential, please see our Strictly Confidential Brochure.
- If you have any questions, or need further information, please call the DCW Pilot Study Help Desk at 866-214-2047 or email us at npalsdcw@cdc.gov.