Here is a link to a Wilkepedia article on the Nursing Shortage. It definitively describes and evaluates the same:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_shortage

From the other spectrum, I too ask is there really a nursing shortage?
I am an RN with 30 years of experience in major teaching hospitals. taking off for maternity leave while dedicating 20 years to raising my family as a single parent while moving my career into the office, hospice, clinic, and outpatient surgery, but preceeded by many years in the Operating Room including supervision followed by a few years of nursing on a surgical floor. Yet, unless I choose a refresher course designed for floor nursing with a 1 to 2 year full time commitment costing upwards of $1500, I am being told that only recent nursing experience is of value in hospitals today! I am sure I am not alone, many nurses finished with their primary mothering roles, look to return to their chosen fields and yet are rejected after dedicating many years of their life to the care of others. What is wrong here in the face of a national nursing crisis, that this country does not look to the experienced older returning nurse to help fill that shortage with nurses living right here in the United States of America!