Nursing programs have always been a side program for many universities. This is because not a lot of funding or attention was paid to the field. However, this is quickly changing thanks to the nursing shortage. Universities are now moving to increase enrollment by creating a larger nursing program. Penn State is taking it even further by now recognizing nursing as its own entire school.

Nursing programs have been popping up everywhere it seems. Thanks to a growing awareness of the nursing shortage, individual states have taken great initiatives to jump start the nursing community. As many nurses know, the bottle neck is with the education programs who cannot accept the amount of qualified applicants they receive.

There is nothing better than seeing exceptional nurses being given the proper respect and recognition for their hard work. Nursing is by any means an easy professional, but it has many rewards. For many nurses, there is nothing better than helping other people get better.

Heidi Mercer is no exception to this as she has been a central figure as a Registered Nurse (RN) for Bridgton Hospital. She is a member of the surgical services nursing staff and has continually done an exceptional job helping patients and doctors as well as other up and coming nurses.

We all know that the United States and other countries in the world are facing nursing shortages, but Arizona is experiencing it at an even worse rate than the rest of the country. There are only 681 registered nurses per 100,000 people in the state. Arizona has a significant amount of baby boomers which will only make the problem worse.

People in the state are saying this is probably the most difficult problem that the country and Arizona has faced yet. However, action has been taken by organizations such as Abrazo Health Care. They operate 5 hospitals in the Valley.

Nursing is turning out to be one of the unique professions. Not because nurses provide services that are very important, but the nursing shortage is causing such huge demand that there is a large and growing media outcry.

Another press conference was held and scientists like Buerhaus and Karen Donelan revealed their findings from three different studies.

1. The recent looming recessions has caused retired nurses to go back to work, but this increase isn't as large as the number of baby boomers retiring.

With so much talk about the nursing shortage, it's hard to keep your head up high. However, California has delivered some great news that all nurses should be aware about. There is a new study that found that California residents are becoming nurses at a much greater rate due to government initiatives.

The Labor and Workforce Development Agency project that California is about to graduate over 10,300 registered nurses this year alone, which is almost a 70 percent increase from last year.

It's been hammered own everyone's throats that there is a nursing shortage. Everyone seems to have someone to blame about the problem, but what is really the core issue that is keeping this shortage from being resolved. Is the lack of people wanting to get into nursing? That might not be the case. It turns out the bottleneck might be the lack of nursing teachers.

Many people don't realize that there is a considerably amount of individuals out there who abandon their current career in favor of a new beginning in nursing.

There have been many cases like an experienced butcher changing directions completely to start a nursing career. For example, Melissa Mattola-Kiatos had worked as a supervisor in a 4 star restaurant, salesgirl at Donna Karan, and even managed funds for an investment firm.

What would make her want to completely switch tracks?

The nursing shortage is very real and affecting many hospitals around the country. It is expected that the US will need a million new registered nurses in order to help all the people who need care. What's even worse is that many qualified students get turned away from schools because the schools themselves don't have the facilities and classroom space.

This may sound a bit surprising, but did you know you could climb a mountain to help nurses? It turns out that a Calgary man plans to climb it for his 62nd birthday. The reason he is doing it is to help local nursing students.

He is setting up a scholarship in his name for single parent nursing students at the University of Calgary. He is then using his climb to attract donations. He stated that climbing a mountain has a similar mixture of self discipline and commitment to advancing a nursing career.