Here’s what’s happening in today’s world of getting and keeping a job:

Getting information: Every job seeker knows that one of the first questions potential employers ask is, “Why did you leave your last job?” That dangerous query often throws unwary job seekers off balance and – if they respond with negative details – often works against them. (My advice is only to say, “It was time to move on.”)

If it’s such an important question, it would seem to me it’s just as vital to know why the job you’re interviewing for is open.

Why did the previous person leave?

But because a job interview in a difficult employment market is not a level playing field, few job seekers ever make that inquiry.

And when they do, even fewer potential employers answer it.

That’s why I was so interested in a possible solution offered by Barbara Adams, a licensed real estate sales representative in Parker, Colo.

Adams agrees that “once you start telling the real reason you left your last job, the “mud’ only gets deeper!” And hiring officers, she points out, “don’t often tell you why the last person left or why the job is open – that’s for sure!”

What Adams does, which I think is an excellent approach: “Lately, however, I’ve been asking in a nonthreatening way, “Is this a new position?”‘

That may trigger some response from the human resources person. “Some interviewers actually do go into why the last person left – but it’s always some “legitimate’ excuse.

I can’t recall anyone ever saying “it was a personality conflict’ – and aren’t personality conflicts the major reason for job changes?”

Even so, asking if it’s a newly created job is a good and seemingly innocuous approach to getting some helpful information. And it might work.

Getting mentored

The nursing shortage is serious, but there are some realistic ways to solve it, according to Revolution, a magazine for registered nurses and patient advocacy.

According to the publication, a grant of $904,000, awarded by the California Endowment, is “helping the Oakland-based California Nurses Association, which is affiliated with the statewide California Nurses Association, reduce the nursing shortage.”

Here’s how the grant will be applied: “The foundation is working with Catholic Healthcare West to implement a three-year pilot nurses mentoring program at four of its hospitals.”

It will pair 160 registered nurses with new graduates, nurses returning to the work force and those assigned to special care units.

The mentoring relationship will go on for two years and is expected to reduce stress and increase retention.

If you want to attract and retain qualified nurses, there’s a way to do it:

Ask them what they need. And then provide mentors to make sure they get it.

Carol Kleiman is the author of “Winning the Job Game: The New Rules for Finding and Keeping the Job You Want” (Wiley, $16.95).