Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the frequency and competency in care services by length of
job experience and level of service difficulty among direct care-workers in long-term care facilities in Korea.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey study design was used and data for 383 care-workers were analyzed. The
case workers were recruited from 29 nursing homes located in different areas of Korea. Results: Mean age of
care-workers was 53.42±7.14, (M±SD) scores for frequency and competency were 4.08±0.59 and 3.92±0.66,
respectively. There was no significant difference in frequency of long term care services, but competency was
significantly different by length of job experience (t=-3.27, p=.001). For level of service difficulty, frequency of long
term care service was highly significant only for level 5 service difficulty (t=-2.70, p=.007), but competency
case-workers with over 3 years of job experience was highly significant for level 3 (t=-3.00, p=.003), level 4
(t=-3.61, p<.001), and level 5 (t=-3.78, p<.001) service difficulty. Conclusion: Findings indicate that competency
of long term care service is significant by length of job experience and a high level of service difficulty, thus these
factors should be considered in assigning roles for direct care-workers in long-term care facilities.