Human resources in nursing education: a worldwide crisis.

The global shortage of nurses is escalating. A key contributing factor to the production of new nurses is the growing shortage of qualified faculty. This paper explores the forces influencing the global faculty shortage, including those that increase demand and those that limit the supply of nursing faculty. The authors discuss potential solutions to the shortage, placing particular emphasis on leveraging the strengths of the profession to accelerate the progression of nurses to graduate school, the enhancement of funding for graduate education, changing the paradigm of clinical education, and the expansion of the science base for practice.