Abstract
The distribution problem and inequality of nurse workforce adversely affect health services in terms
of effectiveness and operational efficiency in health system and also affect the quality of health services.
Nurse workforce should be investigated for solving these problems. This study aimed to investigate
geographical distributions of Thai nurse workforce and to estimate nurse workforce inequality in Thailand.
Those data were obtained from two data sources, Thai Nurses Cohort Study: Health and Working
Life and surveys and the database of the Ministry of Public Health during the year 2005 - 2009. We
analyzed data by frequency and percentage to reflect the distribution of nurse workforce and Gini coefficients
were used to estimate the inequality. The study found that the distribution of nurse during the year
2005 - 2009, the north-east region has the highest ratio of population per nurse (825.30 to 1009.38) while
Bangkok has the lowest ratio (240.19 to 430.70). The level of nurse workforce inequality ranged between
11.42-18.91% and the trend of Gini coefficients demonstrated that the situation of nurse workforce inequality
tends to decrease in the year 2009.
