Careers in nursing have been at a shortage for the past couple of years and have no signs of dissipating. As many individuals are continuing to go to nursing school with the hope of landing a job right after graduation, there is still a high number of nurses who are retiring, leading to a widening in the gap.

One state that may soon have the nursing crisis under control is Michigan. Despite fears of a 18,000 nursing gap by 2010, the work of strategists who have stressed the importance of the need for nurses has appeared to pay off, as the crisis is not as dire as first imagined, according to WZZM 13, an ABC affiliate. One of the attributes to this is the fact that many nurses are choosing to retire at a later age.

"When the economy is not so good, nurses tend to stay in the workforce a little longer," Shawn Ulreich, chair of the West Michigan Nursing Advisory Council, told the news provider. "It's a phenomenon that's happening and we know that it will change as the economy improves over the next couple of years."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national need for nursing will increase 22% by 2018.