Nurses: America's most wanted 136

Those aren't RNs.

It has nothing to do with driving prices down. Here's from the nurse's professional organization, who would be the first to scream if it were just about "driving prices down."

In 1995, there were 96,000 US matriculated students taking the RN exam for the first time. This progressively dropped off to 68,000 in 2001, until it began to turn up again, undoubtedly due to the fact that stranded workers saw it as a high-wage and low-training (comparatively) way to retrain and earn a good living. You can read their findings for yourself, but suffice to say that it would take a year and half to train as many new nurses as job openings exist TODAY, it is the #1 profession for job growth as judged by the Bureau for Labor Statistics, the shortage will only get worse over the next 20 years at least, and the money is rising, not falling, in response to hospitals looking overseas for nurses.

And, not to depress you, but the current President is on top of this and is working the issue:

" The Nurse Reinvestment Act was signed by the President on August 1, 2002 and has been sent back to Congress for appropriations. Provisions of this new law include scholarship money to attract new students into nursing, a Faculty Loan Cancellation Program to remove financial barriers to faculty careers, funding to promote best practices in nursing care, and public service announcements to champion nursing careers. All stakeholders are encouraged to contact their federal legislators and indicate support for funding this legislation. www.aacn.nche.edu-Media-NRAataglance.htm "

Mike