Availability and distribution of staff nurses in Uttar Pradesh

There is little or no information available regarding how far the situation of nursing workforce at community health centers (CHC) have improved or worsened in the state of UP since the launch of National Rural Health Mission(NRHM). This study was to examine how availability and inequality in the distribution of staff nurses at community health centers in Uttar Pradesh has changed over the study period-i.e. 2004–2013. Data for the study comes from the second and fourth round of the District Level Household Survey conducted in 2002–04 and 2012–13, respectively. The study uses simple descriptive statistics for measuring availability and shortage of staff nurses. Gini and Theil ‘T ’measure inequality in the distribution of staff nurses. Scatter plots are used to show the relationship between availability and inequality of staff nurses. The availability and distributional inequality of staff nurses at CHC level has improved only marginally over the study period. However, it still remains well below the Indian Public Health Standards. The proportion of CHCs functioning without staff nurses is still above 10%. Most districts have witnessed a rise in the average number of staff nurses but some have witnessed a decline as well. While between district inequality has reduced with rise in average availability, within district distribution of staff nurses has become more skewed. Results suggests the need to adopt the IPHS staffing norms by the state and recruit accordingly. Districts from eastern and central UP appear to be in a more disadvantaged position than the districts of western U P. This suggests the need to correct such inequalities between districts to uphold the principles of territorial and distributive justice.