The report, released Friday by the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency, found that California nursing programs are projected to graduate nearly 10,400 registered nurses this year. That's a 68 percent increase from the 2003-04 academic year.

Joanne Spetz, associate professor at the UCSF School of Nursing says that it's not that more students are choosing nursing, but that the governor's program expands the number of students admitted into those programs.

”Governor Schwarzenegger’s programs have largely focused on expanding the number of students admitted to California nursing programs, mostly in the Cal State and community college systems,” said Spetz.

Surveys taken in 2005 painted a bleak portrait of California's future, but new numbers from 2007 show that there just may be enough nurses to meet the state's growing health care needs. She adds that over the next five to seven years California's nurse-to population ratio will approach the 25th percentile nationwide.

But Spetz warns that about 30 percent of the spaces in nursing schools right now are funded by grants, which could become a casualty of the budget crisis.