Currently, a comprehensive assessment of the staff potential is becoming an essential element of personnel management, the ultimate goal of which is to develop staff resources of the health facilities in accordance with the needs of upgrading the state health care. Purpose: To determine the impact of measures strengthening the staff potential of nurses on the availability of nurses in the health care of Orenburg Region. Materials and methods: data characterizing the state of the personnel potential of the nursing staff in the health care of Orenburg region were used for this study. The main object of research are nurses graduated from medical colleges and universities and working in the health facilities subordinated to the Orenburg regional Ministry of Health. The official data for 2014-2018 of the Federal State Statistics Service (http://www.gks.ru), the Federal Portal "Russian Education" (http://www.edu.ru) and the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistics System (EMISS) (http://www.fedstat.ru) were used. Also, the data of official statistical reports of the Ministry of Health of the Orenburg Region for 2013-2019 were analyzed including reporting forms No. 30 “Report of a health facility”, as well as other information and methodological materials. Results. On the basis of official statistics, the dynamics of indicators of the availability of medical staff in Orenburg region for 2013–2019 was studied, and compared with average levels for Russian Federation. It was established that the availability of nurses in Orenburg region exceeded the average indicators in Russia for indicated period. At the same time, there was a decrease in the availability of nurses in the Orenburg region per 10 000 people (from 116.8 in 2013 to 108.6 in 2018), a decrease in the ratio of doctors and nurses (from 1: 2.9 to 1: 2.8), a decrease in the number of full-time nursing positions by 12.5%. This decrease is related directly with population decline in Orenburg region (r = 0.89; p = 0.05). The relationships were revealed between the population number and the number of regular positions (r = 0.84; p = 0.05), number of occupied positions (r = 0.85; p = 0.05), number of individual nurses (r = 0.84; p = 0.05), number of really working individual nurses (r = 0.84; p = 0.05). A set of measures aimed at strengthening the personnel potential of nursing staff in the healthcare of Orenburg Region resulted in an increase of the staff number by 5.5%, an increase in the number of individual nurses working in outpatient facilities by 7.2%, in inpatient facilities by 3.3%, and in the health facilities located in rural areas by 7.4%. Thus, in the health care of Orenburg region there are enough nurses, but there is an imbalance in their distribution by specialties and areas. Conclusion. In the health care of Orenburg region there are enough nurses, but there is an imbalance in their distribution by specialties and areas. The measures strengthening the staff potential of nurses during the studied period in Orenburg region resulted in an increase of availability of nursing stuff in the health care facilities and reduction of staff loss due to the exit of nurses from the specialty.