At the present time, many member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)are facing a severe shortage of nurses (Simoens et al. 2005)and Australia is no exception (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008, National Health Workforce Taskforce 2009). It has been estimated that in 2006, there was a shortfall of at least 10,000 trained nurses in Australia (Productivity Commission 2005). This shortage is expected to become more acute in coming years with estimates ranging from 10,000–40,000 nurses by the end of 2010 (Karmel & Li 2002, AHWAC 2004, Productivity Commission 2005,Moore 2007).