Survey Questionnaires
NDWS collects annual surveys of community clinicians, and nursing home, assisted living, and home care staff. The staff surveys also have an administrator survey to learn more about how each organization operates.
Surveys are designed to help researchers understand the composition and training of this large and diverse workforce, including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, direct care workers, and other health care professionals that provide care to older adults living with dementia.
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.
Administrator surveys include questions related to facility characteristics, resident characteristics, staffing, training, and care practices.
Wave 1 Questionnaires
The below PDFs are for reference only. If you have been invited to complete a survey, please visit the Participant Center for more information.
- Community Clinician (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Nursing Home Staff (PDF, 1.2 MB)
- Assisted Living Staff (PDF, 1 MB)
- Home Care Staff (PDF, 562 KB)
Download the Survey Source Crosswalk to see all seven surveys at a glance and how they compare. The crosswalk also includes sources for questions adapted from other surveys. If no source is listed, the question was developed by the NDWS survey team.
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 Wave 1. Visit our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.
Wave 3 Survey Competition
NDWS is seeking input from subject matter experts for new content to be included in Wave 3 data collection in Spring 2026.
Wave 3 questionnaires will include both new respondents and a longitudinal cohort to track changes in employment and practice over time. A new feature of Wave 3 will be in-depth interviews with a subset of survey respondents.
We invite suggestions for both enhancement to the existing survey questionnaires (including new questions and ideas for improving existing questions) and topics for the in-depth interviews. Read the full details., opens in a new window
Submit your ideas here by Wednesday, June 4.
Thank you for helping us build this resource for the scientific community.
Survey Timing
The first wave of annual surveys entered the field in August 2024, with final data anticipated by July 1, 2025. Please note: The Wave 1 survey data release won't contain data from the Home Care Staff survey. Surveys will be deployed annually and updated data released each year. Current funding supports annual surveys through 2028.