35th Partnership Project Examines Frontline Workers’ Experiences and Views Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
As of early March, just over half (52%) of frontline health care workers say they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, leaving 48% who have not, a new KFF/The Washington Post national survey of health care workers finds.
Most who work in hospitals (66%) and outpatient clinics (64%) say they have received a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to half who work in doctors’ offices (52%) or in nursing homes or assisted care facilities (50%), and a quarter (26%) of home health care workers. Similarly, seven in ten (68%) of those responsible for patient diagnosis and treatment like a doctor or a nurse report receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to about four in ten of those who perform administrative duties (44%) or who assist with patient care such as bathing, eating, cleaning, exercising, and housekeeping (37%).
The findings related to vaccination intentions come from a new KFF/Post partnership survey examining the experiences and attitudes of frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and appear in The Washington Post and in a KFF report. Additional findings focused on the emotional, physical and economic toll that the pandemic has taken on frontline health care workers will appear in future stories and reports.
Among the initial findings:
The project, the 35th KFF/The Washington Post partnership survey, includes interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,327 frontline health care workers (direct contact with patients and their bodily fluids), representing hospitals, doctors’ offices, outpatient clinics, nursing homes and assisted care facilities, and those working in home health care. The sample includes workers who work in many, and multiple, different aspects of patient care including patient diagnosis and treatment, administrative duties, and/or assisting with patient care such as bathing, eating, cleaning, exercising, and housekeeping. The survey also included a comparison survey allowing researchers to compare the group of frontline healthcare workers to the general population, that included 971 U.S. adults not working as frontline health care workers. The margin of sampling error for the group of frontline health care workers is 3 percentage points, national comparison sample is 4 percentage points. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.