More men trading overalls for nursing scrubs

Hard figures are elusive, but the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth estimates a shortage of 18,000 nurses in the state by 2015—and the labor force is adapting. Oakland University in nearby Rochester, MI, has established a program specifically to retrain autoworkers in nursing—about 50 a year since 2009. And the College of Nursing at Wayne State University in Detroit is enrolling a wide range of people switching to health careers, including former manufacturing workers, said Barbara Redman, its dean. "They bring age, experience and discipline," she said.