News 12 at 6 o'clock, December 12, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga.---With unemployment hitting an all time high, many are considering going into one field that's been short handed for years -- nursing. Tonight, twenty-three Augusta State nursing students will receive their pins, and become official graduates, headed out into the workplace.

While many new graduates are still looking hard for a job, these students shouldn't have much trouble finding one at all.

The U.S. has been facing a nursing shortage over the last several years, blamed mainly on the fact that baby boomers made up most of the nurses and now they're retiring.

Next school year Augusta State is expanding it's program to offer bachelor degrees, partly to help with high demand. Right now, with the unemployment rate reaching 8 percent, nursing seems to be one of the jobs many are turning back to.

The final touches are in place for the twnety-three students who will step over the threshold into the working world tonight. One graduate says she believes the need for nurses was on their minds when they decided to enter the field.

"People just know there's a nursing shortage, they're needed. They want to be in a profession where they feel secure. So I think that was a factor for some. It's a really stable career. You always need nurses. We had lots of people from all different hospitals come and recruit us so, it felt pretty stable actually in kind of a rocky economy," says nursing graduate Katie Moseley.

After the pinning the twenty-three graduates will then have to take their board exams to become registered nurses. Katie Moseley guesses about half of the class have jobs lined up already.