As a looming nursing shortage threatens the United States, organizations need to be educated about nurse recruitment and retention. The challenge facing healthcare organizations will be to retain sufficient numbers of nurses to provide safe, efficient and quality care to patients. Organizations will seek to recruit and attract quality nurses to fill vacancies. Because nurse turnover is a recurring problem, healthcare organizations will look for strategies to reduce turnover. The bedside nurse turnover rate in 2013 ranged from 4.4 to 44.6% (American Nurses Association, 2013). Nurse retention focuses on retaining nurses in the organization and preventing turnover. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of nurse recruitment and retention, review the literature, and explore how recruitment and retention apply to nursing. Significance of Recruitment and Retention” In 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics (DLS) has a 22% increase in demand for RNs or 581,500 new jobs by 2018, for a total of 1,039,000 positions of work expected to be covered by 2018” (Cottingham, DiBartolo, Battistoni and Brown, 2011, p. 250). It is imperative to implement strategies to improve nurse recruitment to meet needs. Without improvements in recruiting new graduates or experienced nurses, organizations will have to rely on expensive agencies and traveling nurses; therefore, causing a financial burden on organizations (Cottingham et al., 2011). Recruitment becomes a greater challenge in organizations with high turnover due to the increase in the number of vacancies. Nationally, only 14% of employees feel satisfied with their jobs (Clawson & Haskins, 2011). This lack of satisfaction can… midway through the paper… is predicted to approach 500,000 by 2025, and today 30-50% of nurses leave their practice environment or even profession within three years of graduation (MacKusick & Minick, 2010). Nursing leaders can use all of the strategies described above to help retain nursing staff. Their success is vital to ensuring safe staffing, judicious use of healthcare funds and a high level of competence in their institutions. Conclusion Being aware of recruitment and retention strategies is a must for a nurse manager. As leaders, we must take the time to invest in our future nurses using evidence-based practices to ensure our profession thrives and can continue to provide safe, high-quality care to our patients. Being aware of recruitment and retention strategies is necessary in this ever-changing healthcare world to ensure we have competent nurses to take us into the future.