10/27/2025

UPPER MICHIGAN - The national nursing shortage is hitting Michigan hard – and one organization is expanding its search globally to help health care facilities fill the gap.

 A Michigan Health and Hospital Association survey shows about 47-hundred nursing vacancies, and a 2023 University of Michigan report found nearly four in ten nurses said they were planning to leave within a year. Worldwide Health Staff Solutions Chief Nursing Officer Laura Messineo has worked in the field for 34 years. She says nursing schools, already struggling with faculty shortages, can’t train replacements fast enough.

                    0:15  "There have also been many new roles that have been developed outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar hospital settings that are drawing nurses out of the acute-care setting, and more so into the 'spa' realm."

She says recent graduates may not have the critical thinking skills of more experienced nurses. And with the gap growing faster than schools can respond, more health care systems are recruiting overseas.