Michigan has about 10.1 million residents. Registered nurses average $94,300 a year, 25th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Michigan Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses and licensed practical nurses through the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Its office is on West Ottawa Street in Lansing, telephone (517) 241-0199. Rules and applications are at michigan.gov/lara.
Michigan is not in the Nurse Licensure Compact, though a bill has been introduced. A multistate license issued elsewhere carries no authority here, and nurses apply to the department for a Michigan license by endorsement. Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin are all members, which leaves Michigan a licensing island in the middle of the Great Lakes region.
Nurse practitioner practice
Michigan is in the restricted group. Nurse practitioners hold a specialty certification from the nursing board, but prescribing and several other parts of practice run through delegation by a physician rather than under the nurse's own authority. Michigan is the only Great Lakes state in the restricted category. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor is the state's leading research nursing school. Michigan State University's College of Nursing, Wayne State University's College of Nursing in Detroit and the Kirkhof College of Nursing at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids carry large programs, with the community colleges supplying associate degree graduates across the state.
Pay and workforce
Metropolitan Detroit is the largest nursing market in the state, with Corewell Health, Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Medical Center and Trinity Health among the biggest employers. Ann Arbor adds the University of Michigan's academic medical center, and Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint and Kalamazoo anchor markets of their own.
Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula are thinly populated and served by small regional hospitals and critical access hospitals, where winter weather and long transport distances change how emergency care works compared with the southeast of the state. Nurses in the western Upper Peninsula are closer to Wisconsin hospitals than to Michigan ones, and Wisconsin's compact membership does them no good while Michigan stays out. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Licensure by endorsement
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Critical access hospitals
- Nursing by state
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, state population estimates for July 1, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, registered nurses (29-1141), May 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Michigan Board of Nursing, contact details and licensing information. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact, member states. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners, State Practice Environment. Accessed September 8, 2026.