National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS) Participants
About 6,000 eight home health aides from all the agencies participating
in the National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) will be selected to
take part in a new national survey of home health aides. The National Home
Health Aide Survey (NHHAS) will help the home health and hospice industry
develop more effective ways to recruit, train, and retain home health aides.
What is the National Home Health Aide Survey?
The National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS) is the first national study of
home health aides working in home health and hospice agencies in the United
States. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring the
study. About 6,000 home health aides will be chosen for the NHHAS from about
1,500 home health and hospice agencies across the country. The NHHAS will look
at the important role of home health aides in providing long-term care
services for the growing elderly and chronically ill population.
The
NHHAS, part of the National Home and Hospice Care Survey, will provide new
information needed to recruit, retain, and expand the workforce who provides
the direct care to home health and hospice patients. We will conduct this
first national survey of home health aides as a telephone interview with a
sample of workers who provide home health and hospice patients 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
home health aides’ priorities, ways to meet those priorities, and how to
prevent staffing shortages in the future.
Why should I participate?
Our Nation is facing a major shortage of home health aides who provide for
the long-term care needs of patients living at home and patients receiving
hospice care. As “baby boomers” age, the need for long-term care will
increase. The need for home health aides will also grow. But today, many
home health aides are leaving and too few are entering the field.
We
need to find out from home health aides about their work experiences and the
challenges they face. This information will guide changes in policy and
practice that can help attract new people to become home health aides.
Without the voice of home health aides to help inform public policy and new
programs, it is likely the shortage of home health aides will increase.
Therefore, your participation in the National Home Health Aide Survey is
important; without your involvement, home health aides like you will not be
included in the national description of home health aides who work in U.S.
home health and hospice agencies.
Home
health aides like you provide care to more than 2.2 million elderly and
chronically ill people who receive care from approximately 10,000 home
health and hospice agencies across the United States. We need to keep
experienced, dedicated home health aides in the field and find new ways to
attract more home health aides for the future.
Some
of the important goals of the NHHAS are to provide a better understanding
of:
What it
is like to be a home health aide
Ways to
improve the home health aids job
How to
keep experienced people working in this important health care field
Ways to
encourage others to become home health aides
Several national organizations support the NHHAS -- including the
How was I selected?
Home health aides are selected from about 1,500 home health and hospice
agencies participating in the National Home and Hospice Care Survey. About
6,000 home health aides will be chosen throughout the United States for this
survey. Home health aides are randomly selected from a list of all home
health aides employed by the home health and hospice agencies participating
in the NHHAS. A sample of home health aides are selected from each agency.
The home health aides selected from your agency represent your agency as
well as other agencies of similar size in your geographic region.
Your
participation makes the data more accurate. Your participation helps
researchers, policy makers, and the home health and hospice industry
understand the concerns of home health aides. Failure to participate in the
survey lessens the accuracy of the information collected.
How do I know that
the NHHAS is a real survey?
The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) has been in existence
since 1992 with periodic national surveys conducted by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics since
that time. The NHHCS was developed in response to the rapid growth in the
number of home health and hospice agencies throughout the United States.
This growth led to a need for information on the availability and
utilization of services offered by these agencies. The goal of the first
survey was to evaluate the health status and services provided to patients
and to find out whether there were enough agencies and staff to care for
these patients. Today, home health and hospice agencies continue to provide
much needed patient services to a large segment of the country’s disabled,
ill, and elderly population. As the nation’s total population of older
adults grows and the average lifespan continues to increase, we need to
continue to assess the availability and adequacy of these services.
You
can call this toll-free number, 1-888-290-1125, for more information about
the National Home Health Aide Survey.
Is my information kept confidential?
The identity of all survey participants is kept strictly confidential. All
information collected in this survey will be held in strict confidence
according to law {section 308 (d) of the Public Service Act (42 United
States Code 242m)}. By law, information that would identify you to anyone
not connected with the survey cannot be released.
All
information collected in this survey will be kept private, including your
name and the agency where you work. No information will be given to your
supervisor or agency. And your job or certification will not be affected.
We
assign code numbers in place of names or other facts that could identify
you. None of your answers will be reported in any way that identifies you
personally. The survey results will only be released in summary tables and
reports. No information collected in this survey may be used for any other
purpose than the purpose for which it was collected. If any federal employee
or contractor gives out confidential information not authorized by law, he
or she can be fired and fined and/or imprisoned.
What is involved in participating?
After you are selected to participate in the survey, you will receive a
package of information from the agency where you work. The package contains
information about the survey and a token of appreciation for taking time to
learn about the survey. To participate in the survey, please fill in your
name and contact information on the postcard and mail it to us in the
postage paid envelope or call the toll free number on the postcard to
schedule a convenient time to participate in the survey.
After
you contact us, an interviewer will call you to conduct the telephone
interview. A survey representative will also attempt to call you for the
interview, should we not hear from you. The interview will be scheduled
during nonworking hours, at a time that is convenient for you.
The
interview will take about 40 minutes and will include questions about your: Training Job
history Supervision Wages
and benefits Other
work-related issues
Examples
of questions:
How did
you learn about being a home health aide as a possible job?
If you
had to decide whether to become a home health aide again, would you?
Is
caring for others a reason why you continue to work in your current job?
Would
you prefer to work more or fewer hours on this job, or is the amount of
hours you work about right?
Does
your current employer offer you paid sick leave?
After
completing the interview, you will receive $30 in appreciation for
participating in this important survey.
Who can I contact if I have additional questions?
To discuss any part of the National Home Health Aide Survey or to learn more
about it, you can call this toll-free number, 1-888-290-1125. You can also
ask to speak with representatives from the Federal agencies that sponsor
this survey at (301) 458-4747.