Community health care nursing in Rajasthan - A registered nurse's perspective

This study focused on the great shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in prim ary health care in Rajasthan, India. It dealt especially with the nurses' o wn opinions about working in primary health care and their reasons for not working in it. Nurses at different levels in the health care organization w ere interviewed. The study was based on interviews with six RNs individuall y, three groups of six to eight nursing students each, and three policy-mak ing chief nurses individually. The Minister of Health in Rajasthan also par ticipated in the study. The study showed that the reasons for the lack of R Ns in community health care were as Follows: a government policy decision t o place less educated nurses in the communities; the great shortage of nurs es in general; the system whereby a nurse is not able to choose her/his pla ce of work; unwillingness on the part of the nurses to work in community he alth care because of the great security problems: lack of support from auth orities and lack of equipment. In general, community health care nursing as a work area was despised by society at large in Rajasthan.