Galveston County Daily News, March 25, 2007 GALVESTON - In the business of health care, David Marshall is a hot commodity. Hardly a week goes by that Marshall, a registered nurse, doesn't receive letters, e-mails or calls from headhunters, all dangling such enticements as higher pay, fat signing bonuses and flexible scheduling. It's nice to be wanted, said Marshall, assistant vice president for patient care and chief nursing officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch hospitals and clinics. But the increasingly aggressive recruiting tactics by some hospitals underscore a state and national staffing shortage so severe it could, in just a few years, leave thousands of hospital patients hitting the nurse call button and finding no one there to answer. "It's a huge issue for our nation," said Marshall, an administrator who no longer works at bedsides. "Who's going to be there to take care of us when we need nursing care?" Nursing shortages are nothing new. For years, U.S. hospitals have imported nurses from Canada, the Philippines and elsewhere to fill vacancies. But an aging baby boomer population and aging nursing work force are combining to create an unprecedented crisis that could lead to more medical mistakes and even patient deaths, experts say.