While nursing remains one of the most revered professions in the eye of the public, while the work environment is undergoing radical improvements, and while nursing salaries are experiencing a dramatic upswing, both developed and developing countries are caught in a rapidly spreading nursing shortage. Nursing shortages in the United States have usually lasted two or three years—but the current shortage is entering its ninth year with no end in sight. How did a nursing shortage evolve into a global fiasco?