Personal Care Aides in Adult Day Services Centers and Residential Care Communities: United States, 2022.

Introduction: Personal care aides (aides) are a key part of the long-term care infrastructure and provide hands-on care and support with essential activities of daily living to older and disabled Americans. This report presents the number of aides employed in adult day services centers (ADSC) and residential care communities (RCC), the hours they spend with their service users, and their training and benefits.

Methods: Data are from the ADSC and RCC provider components of the 2022 National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study, conducted biennially by the National Center for Health Statistics. The study includes several questions on staffing, including about the number of registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs) or licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), and aides employed directly by ADSCs and RCCs. Full-time equivalent (FTE) staff is based on the number of full-time and part-time employees. A measure of hours per user (participant or resident) per day was used to compare staffing levels in the two settings relative to the number of users. Responses to questions on number of hours of training required and types of training and benefits offered to aides were used to compare in and across ADSC and RCC settings.

Results: Of the 15,600 nursing (RN, LPN or LVN, and aide) FTEs employed in ADSCs and 452,000 employed in RCCs, the majority were aides (63.2% and 76.0%, respectively). Both settings often employed at least one aide (56.2% and 75.6%). The average total of all nursing staffing hours per participant or resident per day was 1 hour and 34 minutes for ADSCs and 4 hours and 25 minutes for RCCs. A lower percentage of ADSCs than RCCs offered training in dementia care (50.8% and 72.3%) and end-of-life issues (19.7% and 58.4%).