If you have a GNM diploma or a B.Sc Nursing degree and you're looking at a stable government job in Uttar Pradesh, UPPSC Staff Nurse is probably already on your list. It's one of the biggest nursing recruitments UP runs, and the pay, security and pension benefits make it worth the wait even when the process drags on for years.
And it does drag on. That's the first thing you need to know before you plan your year around this exam. UPPSC recruitment cycles for Staff Nurse move slowly, sometimes taking two to three years from notification to final joining. This blog lays out exactly where things stand right now, what the job involves, and how to prepare so you're ready the moment a fresh notification lands.
Latest notification and important dates
As of August 2026, there is no fresh UPPSC Staff Nurse notification open for applications. The most recent full recruitment cycle was advertised under Advertisement No. A-3/E-1/2023 for 2,240 Allopathy posts, and that cycle is still being closed out. UPPSC issued a supplementary document verification call in June 2026, with candidates called for verification on July 10, 2026 in Prayagraj. That tells you two things: the commission still has pending vacancies to fill from the 2023 cycle, and a fresh notification covering Allopathy, Ayurveda and Unani posts is expected but has not been officially released yet. Some aggregator sites are talking about a new cycle with around 2,567 combined vacancies, but treat that number as unconfirmed until UPPSC puts out its own advertisement.
Here is the timeline of the last completed cycle, plus what to expect next, marked clearly as tentative.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Advertisement (last cycle, A-3/E-1/2023) | August 2023 |
| Application window | August 21 - September 29, 2023 |
| Preliminary exam | December 19, 2023 |
| Prelims result | Early 2024 |
| Mains application | February 28 - March 14, 2024 |
| Mains exam | July 28, 2024 |
| Final result | March 7, 2025 |
| Supplementary document verification | July 10, 2026 |
| Next notification (Allopathy/Ayurveda/Unani) | Expected late 2026, tentative |
Keep checking uppsc.up.nic.in directly for the actual advertisement once it drops. Don't rely only on third-party dates. Meanwhile, you can start your prep now using free UP-level practice sets so you're not scrambling once the form opens.
What the job actually is
A UPPSC Staff Nurse works in government hospitals, district hospitals, community health centres and medical college hospitals across Uttar Pradesh. Your day-to-day work covers patient care duties: administering medicines, monitoring vitals, assisting doctors during procedures, managing wards, handling emergency cases, maintaining patient records, and supervising junior nursing staff or trainees.
Postings can be in cities or in rural and semi-rural UP, and transfers happen based on department need. If you clear this exam under the Ayurveda or Unani stream, your posting will be in the respective specialty hospitals or wings rather than general Allopathy wards. It's hands-on clinical work, often in shifts including night duty, so if you've worked in a hospital setting before you already know the rhythm.
Vacancy details
The last confirmed vacancy breakup, from the 2023 advertisement, looked like this:
| Category | Posts |
|---|---|
| Staff Nurse (Allopathy) - Male | 171 |
| Staff Nurse (Allopathy) - Female | 2,069 |
| Total Allopathy | 2,240 |
Separate smaller notifications for Ayurveda and Unani Staff Nurse posts have appeared in past cycles too, usually in the range of a few hundred combined. Whenever the next full notification comes, expect the same three-stream pattern: Allopathy (the largest chunk by far), Ayurveda and Unani.
Eligibility
Nationality: You need to be an Indian citizen. Domicile of UP is not usually a strict requirement for this post, but UP-domiciled candidates get preference in many state recruitments, so check the specific notification carefully.
Age limit: The standard age band has been 21 to 40 years, calculated as on July 1 of the recruitment year. Relaxation applies as below (based on the pattern UPPSC has followed):
| Category | Age relaxation |
|---|---|
| OBC / SC / ST (UP domicile) | 5 years |
| PwD (Divyang) | 15 years |
| Ex-servicemen | As per rules, usually 3-5 years plus service period |
| Female candidates (UP domicile) | Additional relaxation in some cycles |
Education: You need Class 10 with Science and Class 12 (Intermediate), plus one of these nursing qualifications:
- Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) from a recognised institute, registered with the U.P. Nursing Council, or
- B.Sc Nursing degree, registered with the U.P. Nursing Council
For Ayurveda and Unani streams, the equivalent diploma recognised by the respective state council is required.
Physical standards: No specific height or chest measurement is prescribed for this post, unlike UP Police or paramilitary exams. Medical fitness is checked at the document verification and joining stage.
Application process and fee
Applications go through the official UPPSC portal, uppsc.up.nic.in, in online mode only. Here's the general process based on past cycles:
- Register on the UPPSC portal with basic details and get your registration ID.
- Fill the online application form with education, category and personal details.
- Upload scanned photo, signature and required certificates.
- Pay the application fee online.
- Submit and print the confirmation page for your records.
Fee structure from the last cycle:
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| General / EWS / OBC | ₹125 |
| SC / ST | ₹65 |
| PwD (Divyang) | ₹25 |
| Ex-servicemen | ₹65 |
Fee is non-refundable, so double-check your category and details before you pay. Payment modes include debit card, credit card, net banking and UPI.
Exam pattern
Selection happens in three stages: Preliminary exam (screening, qualifying in nature but marks may count depending on the cycle's rules), Mains exam (descriptive, marks count towards merit), and Document Verification.
Preliminary exam:
| Subject | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Studies | 30 | 15 | 2 hours (combined) |
| General Hindi | 20 | 10 | |
| Nursing | 120 | 60 | |
| Total | 170 | 85 | 2 hours |
There's negative marking for wrong answers in the objective paper, so don't guess blindly.
Mains exam (descriptive):
| Part | Structure | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Part A | 5 questions, answer in about 125 words each | 25 |
| Part B | Attempt 4 out of 6 questions, about 300 words each | 60 |
| Total | 85 |
The mains paper tests your ability to write clearly on nursing procedures, patient care scenarios and health topics, not just recall facts. Handwriting and structure matter here.
Document verification is qualifying. You bring your original certificates, nursing registration, category certificates and photographs for physical checking.
Detailed syllabus
General Studies: Indian history with focus on the freedom struggle, Indian and world geography, Indian polity and constitution, Panchayati Raj, economic and social development, population and environment issues, current affairs (national and international, including sports), Indian agriculture, general science, and basic mathematics up to Class 10 level (arithmetic, algebra, geometry).
General Hindi: Synonyms and antonyms, word forms, one-word substitution, sentence correction, muhavare (idioms), and general grammar rules used in UP-level exams. This section is often the easiest scoring part if your Hindi basics are solid.
Nursing (the big one, 120 questions):
- Anatomy and Physiology: all major body systems, skeletal, muscular, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, nervous, and reproductive systems
- Fundamentals of Nursing: patient care basics, nursing process, hospital environment, infection control
- Medical-Surgical Nursing: disease conditions, treatment and nursing management across systems
- Community Health Nursing: public health programs, maternal and child health, immunization schedules
- Microbiology: infection sources, specimen collection, sterilisation
- Psychology and Sociology: basic human behaviour relevant to patient handling
- Environmental hygiene: water safety, sanitation, waste disposal in healthcare settings
- First aid and emergency nursing: trauma response, transportation of patients, basic life support
- Pharmacology basics: common drugs, dosage calculation, drug administration routes
Since half your marks in prelims come from nursing subjects, this is where you should spend most of your study hours. Don't neglect General Studies and Hindi though, because a few marks lost there can shift your rank noticeably given how tight this competition usually is.
Salary, pay scale and career growth
UPPSC Staff Nurse is placed in Pay Level 7 of the UP pay matrix, with a starting basic pay of around ₹44,900. Add dearness allowance, house rent allowance (depending on posting city) and other allowances, and your in-hand salary typically lands somewhere between ₹55,000 and ₹75,000 per month, depending on your posting location and applicable HRA slab.
Beyond the starting pay, this is a pensionable government job with promotion avenues into Nursing Superintendent, Matron, and higher administrative nursing roles over the years, along with the usual government employee benefits: medical coverage, leave benefits and retirement security.
Previous cutoff
Exact category-wise cutoff figures for the 2023-24 cycle final result haven't been made fully public in a clean breakdown, but based on prelims qualifying numbers (around 3,962 candidates cleared prelims against 2,240 posts) and typical UPPSC trends for nursing recruitment, expect cutoffs in this rough range for the objective prelims stage:
| Category | Approximate cutoff (out of 85) |
|---|---|
| General | 56-62 |
| OBC | 53-56 |
| SC | 49-52 |
| ST | 45-48 |
| PwD | 43-46 |
These are indicative, not official. Use them to gauge how competitive the paper is rather than as a hard target. Practice on free mock tests to see where you stand against similar difficulty levels.
Best books and preparation strategy
For nursing subjects, stick to your GNM or B.Sc Nursing textbooks first. Standard references like B.T. Basavanthappa for Community Health Nursing, and any good Medical-Surgical Nursing textbook you used during your course, cover most of the syllabus. Don't buy ten different guides. Pick two or three solid ones and revise them repeatedly.
For General Studies, a UP-specific GK book plus our General Awareness guide covers history, polity, geography and current events well. For the small math and reasoning component that sometimes sneaks into general studies-style papers, our Quantitative Aptitude guide and Reasoning guide are good refreshers, along with our Reading Room of free books.
A rough month-wise plan once a notification is live, assuming a 4-month prep window before prelims:
- Month 1: Cover Anatomy, Physiology and Fundamentals of Nursing thoroughly. Start daily Hindi grammar practice for 20 minutes.
- Month 2: Move to Medical-Surgical Nursing and Community Health Nursing. Add General Studies (history and polity) alongside.
- Month 3: Cover remaining nursing topics (microbiology, psychology, first aid), finish geography and current affairs. Start weekly mock tests.
- Month 4: Full revision, daily mock tests, and focus on your weak subjects. Track your current affairs reading daily so nothing recent catches you off guard.
Follow a structured study plan rather than jumping between subjects randomly. Consistency beats long, irregular study sessions.
Common mistakes and honest advice
The biggest mistake candidates make is ignoring General Studies and Hindi because they feel confident about nursing content from their course. Don't do this. In a paper this competitive, the 25 marks from GS and Hindi combined can be the difference between qualifying and missing out by two or three marks.
Second mistake: waiting for the notification to start studying. Given how slowly UPPSC's process moves between advertisement and result, candidates who start early with topic-wise revision have a real edge over those who cram in the last two months.
Third, don't skip the mains preparation just because prelims feels like the bigger hurdle. Descriptive writing needs practice. Write full answers by hand under time pressure at least once a week once you're in mains-prep mode, not just read through notes.
Also, keep your nursing registration certificate and category documents ready and updated well before document verification calls happen. Delays or errors in paperwork have cost candidates their selection in past cycles even after clearing both exams.
FAQ
Is UPPSC Staff Nurse notification 2026 out? No fresh application window is open as of August 2026. The commission is still processing supplementary document verification for the 2023 cycle (2,240 posts). A new notification is expected but not yet confirmed.
What is the eligibility for UPPSC Staff Nurse? GNM diploma or B.Sc Nursing, registered with the U.P. Nursing Council, along with Class 10 and 12 passed. Age should be between 21 and 40 years as on the cutoff date specified in the notification.
What is the exam pattern for UPPSC Staff Nurse? Prelims is objective with 170 questions for 85 marks covering General Studies, General Hindi and Nursing. Mains is descriptive for 85 marks. Document verification is the final qualifying stage.
How many vacancies were there in the last UPPSC Staff Nurse recruitment? 2,240 posts under the Allopathy stream (171 male, 2,069 female), advertised in 2023.
What is the salary of a UPPSC Staff Nurse? Pay Level 7, starting basic pay around ₹44,900, with in-hand salary roughly ₹55,000 to ₹75,000 per month after allowances.
Is there negative marking in UPPSC Staff Nurse prelims? Yes, wrong answers in the objective prelims paper carry negative marking, so avoid random guessing.
Can male candidates apply for UPPSC Staff Nurse? Yes, though the number of posts reserved for male candidates is much smaller than for female candidates in most cycles.
How long does the UPPSC Staff Nurse selection process take? Based on the last cycle, it took close to three years from notification to final document verification completion, so patience is part of the process.
Do I need UP domicile to apply? Domicile is not always mandatory for this post, but UP-domiciled candidates get certain relaxations. Check the specific notification for exact domicile rules.
Where can I practice for the exam? Use topic-wise practice sets and full-length mock tests on Pareeksha to build speed and accuracy before the real exam.
Final word
UPPSC Staff Nurse is a solid target if you already hold a nursing qualification and want a stable state government posting. The process is slow, and that's just the reality of this exam, but the vacancy numbers are large and the pay is decent once you're in. Don't wait for the notification bell to start preparing. Build your nursing fundamentals now, keep an eye on exam news and the exam guides section for the official announcement, and you'll walk into the prelims with a real head start over candidates who start from zero.
Related reads on Pareeksha
- UP Lekhpal recruitment guide
- UP Police Constable recruitment guide
- UPSSSC PET guide
- UP Police SI recruitment guide
For related central-level exams that many UP nursing and general candidates also track, see our SSC CGL and SSC CHSL guides.
💬 Comments (0)
No comments yet — be the first to share your thoughts.