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Nursing homes were profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, influencing work outcomes of care aides who provide the most direct care. We compared care aides' quality of work life by conducting a repeated cross-sectional analysis of data collected in February 2020 and December 2021 from a stratified random sample of urban nursing homes in two Canadian provinces. We used two-level random-intercept repeated-measures regression models, adjusting for demographics and nursing home characteristics. 2348 and 1116 care aides completed the survey in February 2020 and December 2021, respectively. The 2021 sample had higher odds of reporting worked short-staffed daily to weekly in the previous month than the 2020 sample. The 2021 sample also had a small but significant drop in professional efficacy and mental health. Despite the worsening changes, our findings suggest that this workforce may have withstood the pandemic better than might be expected.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; nursing assistants; nursing homes; quality of life; workplace.