I thought this was postable: Nursing jobs tougher to find | wzzm13.com | Grand Rapids, MI

Nursing leaders in West Michigan blame the economy for causing employers to pull back on hiring, leaving new nursing school graduates with fewer choices and experienced nurses lining up for work.

"I don't know that it's unique to West Michigan," said Shawn Ulreich, chief nursing executive at Spectrum Health and chair-elect of the West Michigan Nursing Council. "Across the country, demand is down a little bit."

Grand Valley State University's Cynthia McCurren, dean of the Kirkhof College of Nursing, said she had no information about the number of GVSU nursing graduates with jobs this spring.

At the University of Detroit Mercy's McAuley School of Nursing at Aquinas College, Chair Robi Thomas said about half of this year's graduates have jobs and the rest were still in the interview process.

"The difference our seniors are finding is they don't have multiple job offers and they don't get to pick the shift they want to work on," Thomas said. "The difference is they aren't getting five or six job offers."

Experienced nurses are still needed, but hospitals and doctors' groups just aren't busy enough to hire as many as last year, added Charlie Ferro, president and owner of Diversified Medical Staffing, a company he moved to Grand Rapids last year to take advantage of the burgeoning health care sector here.

Ferro said consumers are cutting back on health care and that has softened demand for nurses.

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