If there’s anything more acute than the primary care shortage, it’s the nursing shortage.

Recruiting companies are getting desperate in their search for prospective nurse applicants, giving them money and gifts. And this is a nationwide phenomenon, with recruiters across the country “offering chair massages, lavish catering and contests for flat-screen TVs, GPS devices and shopping sprees worth as much as $1,000.”

One Michigan company “lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.”

Doug Farrago is only mildly amused amid the proceedings, and says that equal weight needs to be placed on retention, not just recruiting. Low wages and poor job conditions will only serve to perpetuate the shortage.