We've all been hearing about the nursing shortage for a long while now, but there's a new urgency when you talk to health care, education and government leaders today.

The final report from the Task Force on Health Professions Education delivered to new Board of Regents Chancellor Erroll Davis and the University System of Georgia in June confirmed that the nursing crisis is real and likely to worsen. It also confirmed that the number of workers for all health care occupations in Georgia is going to fall short of the growing demand.

Getting more health care workers, particularly nurses, is a multifaceted problem, exacerbated by the dire shortage of health care faculty and by the aging and growth of the U.S. population.

Ken Hepburn, Ph.D., new associate dean of research and director of the doctoral nursing program at Emory University, attended a faculty meeting recently and learned that 80 percent of the educators surrounding him would no longer be working there by 2015. Baby boomers are retiring, and many of their replacements have yet to enter the doctoral programs that will prepare them for teaching jobs. In some cases, those doctoral programs are just being created.

As I began talking to nursing leaders around the state for this month's cover story, I heard that a growing sense of urgency had brought greater resolve to address the problem. At the University System of Georgia, the Department of Technical and Adult Education, college campuses, health care associations and government agencies, people are moving swiftly past the "ain't it awful?" stage of the crisis and into the "what can we do together?" phase.

It's that kind of resolve that is creating more accelerated, bridge, re-entry higher-degree programs in nursing schools statewide. It has schools launching new allied health care programs and system planners giving higher priority to building health care education buildings.

It's also drawing leaders out of their normal spheres to work collaboratively. In August, almost 50 people from various areas of health care responded to the Georgia Hospital Association's Georgia Nursing Education Invitational Summit.

"It was a pretty honest discussion about what we have and what we need in Georgia," said Helen O'Shea, Ph.D., RN, Emory University nursing professor.

That same sense of urgency filled last month's public hearing on the board of medicine's proposed rules for the prescriptive authority of advanced practice registered nurses. From a multitude of perspectives, the board heard that there needed to be less unneccessary bureaucracy and more access to health care for Georgians.

"We worked hard to get this privilege. We're not going to jeopardize it by abusing it, but it's time for Georgia to progress," said Karen Schwartz, MS, WHNP, legislative chair for United Advanced Practice Registered Nurses.

It is time to move forward, according to Krista Meinersmann, Ph.D., APRN-BC, assistant director of undergraduate programs at Georgia State University's nursing school.

"I interact with nurses from around the country, and I don't hear that other places are doing the creative things that we're doing to increase faculty and nurses. I think Georgia might be a little ahead," she said.

- Do you have any story ideas for Pulse? Tell us about your career and what you do after hours. Send e-mail to pulseeditor@ajc.com or call 404-526-2078.