This month’s State Spotlight takes us to magnificent Michigan! The Great Lakes State is known for its beauty as well as its abundance of wonderful Travel Nursing career opportunities. Michigan has exciting cities, rolling hills, beautiful beaches, fascinating history, and so much more for you to explore on your days off. Read on to learn more about why Travel Nurse assignments in The Great Lakes State are totally great!
Travel Nursing in Michigan
Michigan is not only a beautiful state with lots to do and see on your days off, it also offers tons of career opportunities for Travel Nurses. In The Great Lakes State, you will discover an abundance of great job opportunities at Traveler-friendly hospitals that let you build your resume and further develop your healthcare skills.
Michigan is home to more than 165 hospitals — 21 of which meet high enough standards to be ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s 2018/2019 Best Hospitals list. That includes their #1-ranked Michigan hospital, Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, which is nationally ranked in 14 specialties and 10 children’s specialties, in addition to being ranked “High Performing” in one adult specialties and nine procedures/conditions. Rounding out the top five overall best hospitals in Michigan are: Royal Oak’s Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak, Troy’s Beaumont Hospital-Troy, Grand Rapids’ Spectrum Health-Butterworth and Blodgett Campuses, and Detroit’s DMC Harper University Hospital.
U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 “Best States” list ranked Michigan #37 overall, as well as #20 for opportunity and #22 for economy.
As for licensing, Michigan is not a walk-through state but it is a NURSYS state. As of August 2018, Michigan had legislation pending to be a compact state within the eNLC. Click here for more, up to date info on licensing in Michigan.
Michigan Fast Facts
State Nickname: The Great Lakes State or The Wolverine State
Capital: Lansing
Largest City: Detroit
National Parks: 5
State Parks: 103
National Historic and Natural Landmarks: 53
State Motto: “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you.”
State Flower: Apple Blossom
State Tree: Eastern White Pine
State Bird: American Robin
State Fossil: Mastodon
State Reptile: Painted Turtle
Michigan was the 26th state.
Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas are connected by the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge — one of the world’s longest suspension bridges.
In reference to its shape, Michigan’s Lower Peninsula is often dubbed “the mitten.”
Grand Haven, Michigan is known for its famous singing sand beaches, which give off a whistling sound when walked on.
Ginger ale (also the nation’s first soda pop), fiber optics, baby food, synthetic penicillin, hospital beds, three-color traffic lights, the middle lines on roadways, techno music, Detroit-style pizza, the Motown sound, home-based sales (think Tupperware parties), cereal, public works programs, radio news shows, paint-by-numbers kits, and the automobile assembly line were all invented in Michigan!
The Great Lakes make up about 20% of freshwater in the world.
Michigan is home to more than 129 lighthouses and navigational lights.
While The Wolverine State is one of Michigan’s enduring nicknames, there are no longer any wolverines in the state.
Michigan is home to the longest freshwater shoreline in the world — it also has more shoreline period than any other state but Alaska.
Fittingly, Michigan boasts the most boat registrations in the nation.
In 1879, Detroit phone customers became the nation’s first to get assigned telephone numbers.
Michigan is the only state to touch four out of five Great Lakes.
Battle Creek, Michigan is known as the “Cereal Capital of the World.”
The bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald — memorialized in a famous Gordon Lightfoot song — is displayed at Michigan’s Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
The first tribal-owned casino in the nation was Kings Club Casino, created by the Ojibwe Indians of Bay Mills.
Famous folks from Michigan include Serena Williams, Kristen Bell, Dax Shepherd, Diana Ross, Ken Jeong, Tom Selleck, Magic Johnson, Stevie Wonder, Henry Ford, Jack White, Francis Ford Coppola, Lily Tomlin, Kid Rock, Charles Lindbergh, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Michael Moore, Jemele Hill, Madonna, Christie Brinkley, Gilda Radner, John Hughes, David Spade, Terry Crews, Burt Reynolds, Kate Upton, Potter Stewart, and Bob Seger.
The first soda pop in the U.S. was Vernor’s ginger ale — which was created accidentally in Detroit in 1866.
Indian River’s Cross in the Woods Catholic shrine features a 31-foot high crucifix — the largest crucifix in the world.
The nation’s first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall was the Kalamazoo Mall.
Henry Ford formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903 in Detroit.
Mackinac Island State Park was the nation’s first National Park before it was transferred to the state.
Deep underneath the city of Detroit, Michigan are 1,400 acres of salt mines.
Colon, Michigan considers itself the “Magic Capital of the World” and it hosts a magician convention every August.
The Michigan Triangle — akin to the Bermuda Triangle — stretches over Lake Michigan near Ludington, Benton Harbor, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and is the site of lots of plane and ship disappearances.
In addition to Henry Ford’s influence, Detroit was dubbed the Motor City because it boasted the first mile of concrete highway, the first four-way three-color traffic light, and the first urban freeway.
To Do & See in Michigan
The Great Lakes State has all kinds of diverse activities for Travelers to do and so many beautiful sights to see. There’s an abundance of water, outdoor recreation, unique attractions, interesting history, and so much more. Michigan is a truly magnificent place for your next adventure in Travel Nursing!
For city lovers, Michigan’s largest cities include Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, and Lansing. Cities like these show off what makes Michigan such a great place to live, work, and play.
Detroit is the urban crown jewel of The Great Lakes State, with its easy access to great dining, shopping, sports, museums, and so much more. Many people know Detroit as Motor City, with its proud history of innovation in automobiles, roadways, and other trappings related to cars. For others, Motown may spring to mind, because of the city’s proud musical tradition. Explore these aspects of the city’s rich history at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation or at the Motown Museum.
Other fun stops in Detroit include Belle Isle Park, Hart Plaza, The Fox Theatre, Detroit Historical Society, Greektown, Camp Martius Park, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Heidelberg Project, Belle Isle Aquarium, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Riverfront and Detroit Riverwalk, Grand Circus Park, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, “The Fist” monument to Joe Louis, the Guardian Building, and so much more!
Some of the state’s other must-sees and dos include Traverse City’s National Cherry Festival, Holland’s Tulip Festival, Ann Arbor’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Grand Rapids’ Meyer May House and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, the Michigan State Capitol and Michigan History Center in Lansing, and more.
Lovely small towns and beach towns in Michigan to visit include Saugatuck, Frankenmuth, Copper Harbor, Petoskey, Tecumseh, South Haven, and Paradise. These towns offer quaint scenery, rich history, lots of fun and unique activities and festivals, and more. You can also check out some of the state’s 129-plus quaint lighthouses!
Sports fans will cheer for assignments in Michigan as you’ll get the chance to root for Detroit’s Tigers, Lions, Red Wings, and Pistons — not to mention the state’s many other awesome pro, semi-pro and college teams.
When it comes to food, Michigan has a great deal of snack appeal — the state is known for its historic contributions to the potato chip and cereal industries, and when Vernors Ginger Ale was accidentally invented in 1866 by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor, it became the nation’s first soda pop!
Additionally, Michigan is known for its Detroit-style square pizza, cherries, apple cider and cider doughnuts, Cornish pasties, incredible Greek cuisine, paczkis (Polish doughnuts), Mackinac Island fudge, blueberries, whitefish, zip sauce, chipati, coney dog, and Frankenmuth chicken dinner. Wash it all down with a Faygo soda, Hummer cocktail, or an ice-cold Bell’s Oberon and you’ll be living like a true Michiganian!
If you love the great outdoors, The Great Lakes State is a perfect fit for you! Particularly for those fond of beach days, boating, swimming, fishing, kayaking, and other watersports, Michigan is a wonderland for water lovers. From any point in Michigan, you are never more than 85 miles from a Great Lake! Incredible activities, views, and to-dos for the outdoorsy include Mackinac Island, Porcupine Mountains, Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Thunder Bay, Silver Lake Sand Dunes, Iron Mountain, Tawas Point State Park, Belle Isle State Park, and so much more
Ready for your adventure to Michigan?!
Search jobs now to find your dream Travel Nurse job in Michigan!