There is a chronic condition plaguing the U.S. healthcare industry, with no cure in sight: the shortage of qualified nurses. For the first time ever, The U.S. Department of Labor, in its February 2004 Monthly Labor Review, cited registered nursing as the top occupation in terms of job growth through the year 2012. Yet according to National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the number of candidates taking the NCLEX-RN Exam, the national licensing exam for registered nurses, actually decreased by 10% from over the last decade, declining to only 87,085 in 2004.