Survey Questionnaires

NDWS is conducting annual surveys of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, direct care workers, and other health care professionals who are community-based practitioners or employees of nursing homes, assisted living communities, and home health care agencies that provide care to persons living with dementia.

Surveys are designed to help researchers understand the composition and training of this large and diverse workforce. Staff surveys ask questions across a variety of domains, including demographics; education, training, and experience; employment status; dementia care knowledge attitudes and practices; and worker outcomes.

Administrators at nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home care agencies are also being surveyed to gain insight into the structure and operation of each organization. Administrator surveys include questions related to facility characteristics, resident characteristics, staffing, training, and care practices.

Survey data will be valuable as a standalone data, and can also be combined with linked data sources such as beneficiary-level Medicare claims or county-level health care resources to connect workforce factors with care and outcomes of patients cared for by respondents to maximize the NDWS scientific potential.

Year 1 Questionnaires

Visit the Resources page to download survey source crosswalks. 

View a list of masked variables, opens in a new window to see which questions will be masked or modified in the public use files (PUFs) to safeguard respondent privacy.

Watch videos explaining how the survey questionnaires were developed, and the sample frame/data collection process for Year 1.

Community Clinician Survey
Nursing Home Staff Survey
Assisted Living Staff Survey
Home Care Staff Survey

Surveys are designed to:

  • Be nationally representative of the dementia care workforce in each setting.
  • Be completed by multiple individuals within the same care setting, generating insights into how the workforce collaborates.
  • Follow how the workforce changes over time by tracking entrances and exits.
  • Be patient- and partner-centered. Questionnaires were developed through focus groups, cognitive interviews, and expert reviews with individuals representing target occupations and settings.
  • Be updated annually to include new survey items from researchers and stakeholder groups.

Timing

The first round of annual surveys went into the field in August 2024, with final survey data anticipated in early Spring 2025. Beginning in 2025 with Year 2, surveys will be deployed annually with data available each fall. Current funding will support annual surveys through 2028.  

Year 2 Survey Competition 

NDWS is seeking input from subject matter experts for new questionnaire content to be included in 2025 data collection.

We hope to enhance the existing survey questionnaires through the addition of:

  • Additional questions and topics focused on specific themes or areas of interest related to training, compensation, payment models, care practices, and other areas salient to improving the quality of care provided by doctors, nurses, nursing homes, and home health care for people living with dementia.
  • Questions and topics that support studies aligned with the National Institute on Aging's AD and ADRD Research Implementation Milestones, particularly milestones 13.J, 13.K, 13.O, and 13.P.
  • Vignettes to assess health care workers' judgment and decision-making processes.
  • Questions/modules related to respondents who are part of the longitudinal subset of this survey and will receive surveys for more than one year. These questions can focus on changes in their work environment, training, and employment, as well as reasons for changes.

New proposed content should describe the theoretical basis, full question wording, and response options when appropriate. Please keep questions to under one page in length.

Submit your ideas here by 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16.