The demand for critical care nurses continues to exceed the supply. The reasons for this include (1) an increasing number of critical care beds, (2) critical care beds representing a growing percentage of patients, (3) occupancy rates of critical care units ranging from 80% to 100%, (4) downsizing of healthcare staff, (5) declining enrollments in nursing schools, and (6) inadequate retention of nurses. 1 An aging population and technological advances are also contributing factors. These factors are apparent nationwide, and the predictions are that they will continue to worsen. 2 Hospitals are aggressively recruiting new staff and use agency and traveling nurses to fill vacancies. These solutions are temporary and costly. Critical care internship programs seek to attract experienced nurses who want to transfer to a critical care area or new graduate nurses who have an interest in critical care. Although no standardized definition of an internship program has been published, this term is often used by clinical nurse specialists and educators to describe a program that provides specialty-area content combined with building of areaspecific skills and time at the bedside with a clinical preceptor. 3 In 1996, board members of the Greater Portland chapter of the American Association of CriticalCare Nurses (GPC-AACN) noted that 6 introductory internship programs in adult critical care were offered in the Portland area. These programs were sponsored by 6 different hospitals and involved approximately 120 participants. The GPC-AACN saw an opportunity and invited a group of area clinical nurse specialists, nurse educators, and managers to discuss the idea of forming an educational consortium to more effectively address entry-level education for novice critical care nurses. In this article, I describe the process this group went through to develop a 6-day course on the core theory of critical care nursing on a consortium basis, discuss how this core content can mesh with individual hospitals’ internship programs, and provide details that readers might use or adapt for use in their own facilities. The idea of consortium-based education is not new. The litera