National Nursing Assistant Survey

What is the National Nursing Assistant Survey?

The National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS) is the first national study of nursing assistants working in nursing facilities in the United States. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring the study. About 6,000 nursing assistants will be chosen for the NNAS from about 800 nursing homes across the country. The NNAS will look at the important role of nursing assistants in providing long-term care services for the growing elderly and chronically ill population.

The NNAS, part of the National Nursing Home Survey, will provide new information needed to recruit, retain, and expand paraprofessional long-term care workforce. We will conduct this first national survey of nursing assistants as a telephone interview with a sample of workers who provide nursing home residents with assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs) (eating, transferring, toileting, dressing and bathing). The survey includes collecting information on whether workers plan to continue working in their present positions and what factors affect their decisions, including job satisfaction, nature of the work environment, training, advancement opportunities, benefits, working conditions, and personal or family demands. The survey will help identify nursing assistants priorities, ways to meet those priorities, and how to prevent staffing shortages in the future.

Additional Information for Survey Participants

Data Highlights

• 2004-2005 Nursing Assistant Tables - Estimates and Standard Errors

Survey Methodology, Documentation, and Data Files

2004
Survey Methodology and Documentation PDF - 133 KB
Questionnaires PDF - 269 KB
Data dictionaries
Data files

Publications

An Introduction to the National Nursing Assistant Survey.
"An overview of the first national probability survey of nursing assistants working in nursing homes, including methodology, data collected, and linkage to the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey(NNHS)".[PDF Version - 7.2 MB]

Who can I contact if I have questions?
To discuss any part of the National Nursing Assistant Survey or to learn more about it, you can call our toll-free number, 1-800-937-8281. You can also ask to speak with representatives from the Federal agencies that sponsor this survey.