Nearly everyone can remember a nurse who helped them feel better at some time in their lives. Maybe it was the school nurse who gave you a lozenge when you had a sore throat, a caring nurse from your doctor's office or one who took care of you when you spent time in a hospital.

Nurses are patient advocates, often the first to detect an emergency or health condition that needs a doctor's attention. Nurses are a major and essential part of our health care system, and yet there is a significant shortage of nurses in our country.

In February '04, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nursing field topped the list of the 10 occupations with the largest projected job growth between '02 and '12. In '09, there were 100,000 unfilled nursing positions available in the United States—and by '12, that number is expected to skyrocket to more than one million open nursing jobs.

According to a report published by Trust for America's Health, a non-partisan organization, Missouri has nearly 13,000 unfilled nursing positions. The state also falls tenth in the list of states with the largest nursing shortages.

The shortage is so significant that Gov. Jay Nixon proposed a unique plan to help educate new nurses. On a Dec. 7 visit to the university of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing, Nixon announced that he wants to spend $3 million over the next three years to fund grants to hire more nursing instructors, and his office estimated that the money would pay for about 13 full-time positions each year.

"This money would be available to those public two- and four-year colleges and universities that have nursing programs," Scott Holste, Nixon's press secretary, said.

Janet Hood, is an RN who works in a busy Hazelwood pediatric office. She said she thinks this initiative will be good for the community and for the nursing profession.

"I think it's about time that more money is put toward helping overcome the nursing shortage," Hood said. "This is a great way to educate people from our own communities, instead of looking for nurses to bring in who have been educated elsewhere."

The landmark announcement followed the '09 launch of the Caring for Missourians initiative, a one-time investment of $40 million made to increase the number of health professionals, including nurses, who are educated at public colleges and universities in Missouri. Each school developed an individual plan for investing the funds it received.

"Nursing is a vital and rewarding profession, and students who earn degrees in nursing have a pathway to a secure and rewarding career," Nixon said in a press release.  "By investing in nursing education, we are meeting a vital need for more qualified health professionals in Missouri, and we are helping students compete in a rapidly growing industry."

Nixon wants to take the funds from nurse licensing fees that current nurses pay to the state, and the Board of Nursing has already voted to make it happen for fiscal years '12, '13 and '14.

"Gov. Nixon clearly understands the importance of nurses for our health care system and our state's economy," said Missouri State Board of Nursing president Aubrey F. Moncrief . "We are proud to stand with the Governor to support the Caring for Missourians initiative and to extend the increase in the capacity of Missouri's nursing degree programs [and] look forward to welcoming hundreds of additional nurses to our ranks in the coming years."