Nurse shortage expected to extend over next seven years

I am an RN MSN with 12 years experience in the profession including Nursing Education. Since I have been out of the profession for 22 years, I have found that most hospitals have no provision to re-train individuals like myself. We have to seek out Nurse Refresher courses which are costly, time intensive and difficult to find. Especially in this economy I think most people like myself would welcome the extra income and flexibility the profession affords us. Why don't hospitals put together orientation/refresher courses for us, and pay us while we learn? They will have added experience on the Nursing Units during the training, and well-prepared staff after the training is complete.

The facilities don't feel there are enough of you to make it worth the time and expense and these nurses won't stay. I teach with a refresher program and have even tried to market the benefit of contracting out our services. They are mostly short-sighted.That is why they do only 12 hour shifts and have not done more about the lifting and other hazards of the profession. Until Medicare stops paying for something they won't make any changes.

I have a sister who is an RN and she is looking for a position and it is not as easy as this article portrays ... after all about 70 % of statistics are made up on the spot.

There is no nurse shortage now. Ask the people at the Nursing Spectrum and Nursing Advance. It is also impossible to predict the need in the future given the reforms that are sure to come down the pike.

Things are not good in Canada either for us nurses. Our unit is so understaffed that it relies on staff of other units and full time doing overtime shifts. Yet , if we get sick, we end up in the nurse manager's office to discuss why we were off. Full time jobs with no rotations have nurses working terrible combinations of 12 hour and 8 hour shifts. Nurses soon leave these positions as there is no quality of life. They refuse to hire casual and only hire minimal part time staff. Despite efforts to explain the need for more staff, the concerns fall on deaf ears. A friend on another nursing unit told me that three of her coworkers were in tears one day due to work load. Anyone who can retire will do so earlier and new nurses will leave the profession.

I'm looking in to going back to college for nursing, I'm just worrid about going and finishig then not finding a job. I know at least six people that are in scool for that.
I'm just worried that I'll finish and just like my other degree not be able to find a job.