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Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities
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Nursing assistants, 2015‐2019
Background
Nursing assistants provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. They perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. Nursing assistants’ duties may include medication administration and other health-related tasks.
As of May 2019, there were 1,419,920 people employed in this occupation. The average hourly wage was $14.77 and the average annual wage was $30,720.
Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses
In private industry for this occupation, there were 27,590 nonfatal injury and illness cases requiring days away from work during 2019. The incidence rate per 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers was 283.5.
| Case characteristic[1] | Number of cases |
|---|---|
Nature of injury or illness | |
Sprains, strains, tears | 13,390 |
Soreness, pain | 7,180 |
Bruises, contusions | 2,780 |
All other natures | 2,280 |
Fractures | 770 |
Part of body affected | |
Back | 8,070 |
Multiple body parts | 3,720 |
Shoulder | 2,700 |
Knee | 2,140 |
Hand | 1,490 |
Source of injury or illness | |
Patient | 15,050 |
Floors, walkways, ground surfaces | 4,710 |
All other sources | 2,820 |
Worker motion or position | 1,990 |
Furniture, fixtures | 1,260 |
Event or exposure leading to injury or illness | |
Fall on same level | 4,980 |
Overexertion in lifting or lowering | 3,190 |
Intentional injury by other person | 2,910 |
Struck by object or equipment | 1,440 |
Injury by person-unintentional or intent unknown | 1,130 |
[1] Data shown correspond to Nature, Part, Source, and Event codes based on the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System 2.01 developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses | |
Fatal occupational injuries
Fatal work injuries totaled 7 for nursing assistants during 2019, compared to 12 during 2018.
| Year | Fatalities |
|---|---|
2015 | -- |
2016 | 8 |
2017 | 8 |
2018 | 12 |
2019 | 7 |
Notes: Dashes indicate data do not meet BLS publication guidelines. CFOI data by event are only provided if there are fatal case counts in three or more of the six event categories. For more information visit: https://www.bls.gov/iif/overview/cfoi.htm. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries | |
Sources
Wage and employment estimates come from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Injury and illness information come from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). For more information on SOII and CFOI program concepts and definitions see the SOII Handbook of Methods and the CFOI Handbook of Methods.
Last Modified Date: February 4, 2021