Crossposted at The Motley Moose

Nursing has long been looked at as a career with almost impeccable long-term prospects. People always get sick, right? On top of that, the United States has a rapidly aging population, spends more on health care than most of the rest of the world combined, and is currently facing a nursing shortage that estimates suggest will broach half a million unfilled positions in the next few years.

As the current recession has materialized, we've heard those statistics bandied about time and time again. This, alongside stories about hospitals throwing themselves on top of each other going after new recruits, offering them sign-on bonuses, tuition reimbursement, travel packages- just to land a few newly-minted RNs. There are years-long waiting lists to get into Nursing programs at schools nationwide; thousands of newly-unemployed Americans are now looking to Nursing as a stable career that can put them back on track.

But the economic crisis currently facing our nation quickly calling this "conventional" wisdom into serious question- and it seems that no career is immune to the effects of this recession.

There's more...

Hello all!!

 Just hopped over the the Edwards page and saw he had added more awesome ideas to his healthcare and education plan. These ideas are targeted to Nurses so hop with me folks!

There's more...

This is a short diary.  Before the 110th Congress gets down to business, the freshman are hard at work in orientation, and new committee chairs are working behind the scenes to set the agenda.

Professional nursing has become increasingly critical in the US healthcare policy debate and reform.  The nursing shortage is still on a steady rise.  There are so few faculty that thousands of qualified students are turned away or are deferred from entry into basic programs for years.

There's more...