The Ministry of Health and Environment, through the office of the Director of Nursing, saw the need to conduct a study to determine the number of nurses needed to provide an accecptable level of care to the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The aim of the study was two fold, to: (a) Determine the number of position of nurses, registered midwives and enrolled nurses needed to deliver an "acceptable level of care" to the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas: (b) Esablish the number of candidates who should be educated/trained over the next five (5) years with the aim of maintaining an adequate number of nursing personnel within the health care system. The study was conducted during the months of May, June, July and August of 1994 within the institutions and areas of the Ministry of Health and Environment. These institutions and areas included, Princess Margaret Hospital and Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre both in New Providence; the Community Health Services which serves New Providence as well as the Family Islands and Rand Memorial Hospital which serves the Freeport and Grand Bahama area. Methodology for this survey was that of a comparative nature. The original plan included the comparison of four (4) sets of data. However, due to unforeseeable constraints, only the following three (3) sets were utilized and compared. Data on sick and study leave was incomplete, therefore, was not included in the study. (1) Data from previous surveys as far back as the early 1980's focussing on nursing needs as well as working conditions of nurses. (2) Data indicating the present nursing positions as well as the projected required nursing positions as indicated by the institutions. (3) Calculated number of positions determined by number of beds, occupancy rates, met demand for services and the average time taken to complete nursing task as indicated by nursing personnel through discussions. The fourth set of data was collected by way of self administered questionnaire containing 49 variables and distributed to a sample of 210 participants, selected by the stratified systematic method of sampling.