At one point or another most of us have relied on the care of a registered nurse to provide the aid and support we need to get our health on track. Not only is the nursing profession the largest segment of the healthcare system, but it also makes one of the largest impacts on it, and thus on the lives of everyone. This makes the fact that the United States is on verge of a critical nursing shortage extremely unsettling. Nurse to patient ratios are dropping, jeopardizing patient care in the process. For now, most hospitals with a staffing need can overcome shortages, but a steady decline continues as more and more people don't even consider the viability of nursing as a career. Without steps to ensure the underlying causes are corrected a future worsening of the nursing shortage, as well as healthcare in general, is guaranteed.

Currently, 30 states are suffering from a shortage of nurses. Nearly ninety percent of long term facilities are insufficiently staffed, and are forced to refuse admissions do to the inability to provide basic care. With 126,000 open nursing positions, a number expected to grow to 1.1 million by 2012, the fate of healthcare in the United States is look grim. But with more new nursing jobs expected to be created than for any other occupation, the time is right to reverse the problem.

To avoid the oncoming shortage disaster, and sustain the change, solutions must be developed in: health care systems, image, policy, and education. But, these changes must be developed and maintained by nurse practitioners, leaders, health care executives, media, and government to effectively solve the problem and divert future disaster.