The global nursing shortage has many faces. Health and education systems are both undergoing revolutionary changes which have disrupted traditional health and educational practices. Business values have replaced both health and educational norms and professional values. The commodification of education and health has increased the need for common educational standards which in the case of nursing has facilitated nurse migration and the export of nurse education. Unfortunately it threatens to standardize down as well as up. In other words, without considering the needs of a 21st century education which, in the health professions more generally has not kept pace with societal needs, there is a risk that the nursing profession seen as a commodity, will face educational deskilling in the interest of maximizing profits in the expanding privatized health and education systems. This paper argues that the nursing profession must be open to new ideas that will transform both education and practice.