This is the second article in a series about America's nursing shortage: Part I | Part II

In an era of nursing faculty shortages and a highly competitive job market, supporting prenursing students in preparing for successful careers is crucial.

We've all heard stories abound about individuals who are lucky enough to get accepted into nursing school, graduate in good standing and then can't find a job for months.

Many of those newly minted nurses can't find the med-surg jobs that everyone says they need in order to succeed. Meanwhile, other employers refuse to hire them until they have med-surg experience. This is a frustrating conundrum. Without enough med-surg jobs to go around, new nurses are stuck between a rock and hard place after pouring blood, sweat and tears into successfully completing nursing school.

Start supporting them early

In order to attract the best talent to the profession, we need to support those who want to become nurses before they even enter school. If the nursing profession wants to prepare for the future, we can do significant outreach to high schools, community colleges and vocational schools. We can target those who want to be nurses, and offer mentoring and coaching to groom them for success in nursing school and beyond.

Short of changing the entire nursing/healthcare employment paradigm, we can support these nurses-to-be by encouraging them to make themselves as marketable as possible.

Make them marketable

If those who seek to become nurses want to begin making themselves marketable from the start, there are many ways to do so:

Earn certifications and gain experience: Nurses-to-be can become certified as CNAs, med techs or EMTs, amassing important healthcare experience before entering nursing school.

Engage in targeted networking: Those who want to be nurses can consistently build a robust professional network. Tools to accomplish this include LinkedIn, informational interviews, and requesting connections and introductions from friends, family and colleagues. Building and maintaining valuable relationships with employers, preceptors, teachers and fellow students is a prudent strategy.

Volunteer: Healthcare-related volunteerism is a rewarding resume-building activity. Supervisors and colleagues can later be used as valuable references.

Accumulate references: Keep a database of who can be tapped for future references.

Learn to be a professional: Becoming familiar with what it takes to be a successful professional cannot be learned too soon. The writing of cover letters and resumes can be mastered; interviewing and networking skills can be learned and practiced; social media can be used to learn about the nursing and healthcare industries; body language and communication skills can be sharpened; clinical skills can be learned.

Nurture those who would be nurses

Nurses can nurture and mentor nurses-to-be both formally and informally. Our profession needs to attract the best possible candidates, and a collective sense of responsibility goes a long way towards this effort.

These future nurses will someday take care of us, our families and our friends. Those who wish to become nurses deserve our support and encouragement. Nurturing future nurses is a veritable investment in our individual and collective future.