There is an overall positive perception of working in home-based and post-acute health care, but many workers believe that the emotional and physical demands of health care employment are major disadvantages to these and other fields, according to the 2025 edition of Wellsky’s national health care employment study. 
 
The study, titled “Addressing today’s healthcare workforce challenges,” looked at responses from 1,200 U.S. workers. Respondents included 400 nurses, 400 health care workers in other roles and 400 non-health care workers who said they were open to working in the field.  
Of these respondents, 80% reported having a positive perception of working in home-based care. Similarly, 78% said they had a positive perception of working in post-acute care.  
 
Despite the positive perception of health care employment, study participants pointed out what they believed to be several disadvantages to working in the field. Examples include having difficult conversations with patients, risks to physical safety, scheduling inflexibility and limited pay. 
 
Mental health was also a focus of the survey. Of the nurses who respondend to the survey, 51% reported that they had sought out mental health support in order to cope with job-related pressures.  
 
To view Wellsky’s study and learn more about national perceptions of the healthcare workforce, visit https://wellsky.com/workforce-study/.