When is a good time to hit the books?

Potential nursing students have been turned away in recent years in the tens of thousands due to lack of facilities and qualified faculty.  Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Tom Latham (R-IA) have now proposed a federal student loan repayment program for nurses who obtain a grad degree in nursing and sign up to teach full-time at an accredited nursing school for at least four years.
The Nurses’ Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act (H.R. 1460) would repay nurses with a masters degree $40,000, and $80,000 for those with a doctoral degree.

Is this the solution that nurses everywhere have been waiting for?  If you are currently a nurse, how would a turn towards academia suit your lifestyle?