Iowa's Healthcare Shortage Is Everyone's Problem: Mercy College Has a Plan
If you've tried to schedule a specialist appointment lately, you've felt it. If you run a business and struggle to attract employees to a region where healthcare access is stretched thin, you know it. Iowa's healthcare workforce shortage is not a distant policy problem; it is a daily reality shaping the quality of life in our communities and the competitive position of our region.
The numbers are stark. Registered Nurses are the number one skilled-labor need in Iowa, according to Iowa Workforce Development. More than 3,500 RN job postings are consistently active across the state, and 35% of those positions take more than three months to fill. Nursing-related postings account for 78% of Iowa's top five aggregate job categories. The demand isn't slowing either. An aging population and a wave of retirements are only deepening the gap.
For business and community leaders in Greater Des Moines (DSM), this is a workforce development issue, an economic competitiveness issue and a quality-of-life issue all at once. And Mercy College of Health Sciences, sitting right here in our downtown, has been faithfully working to address it for more than 125 years.
Meet Mercy College of Health Sciences
Founded in 1899 as a training school for nurses by the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy College of Health Sciences offers accredited programs ranging from certificate, associate and bachelor's degrees to master's-level education across the health sciences. Its urban campus sits in the heart of Des Moines, connected to the health systems and city amenities that shape both student life and career opportunities.
What makes Mercy College distinctive isn't just its history, it's its students. With a median student age of 31, 45% who are first-generation college students, 32% who are raising children and 90% who rely on financial assistance to attend, Mercy College is reaching the people for whom a healthcare education is truly a path to economic independence. These are Des Moines neighbors investing in themselves so they can care for our community.
A Plan for What Comes Next
This summer, Mercy College launched Building Our Future, its strategic plan for 2026 through 2030. Organized around three pillars — Our People, Our Purpose and Our Potential — the plan is a blueprint for how the College will grow its programs, deepen community and healthcare partnerships and expand its capacity to meet Iowa's needs over the next four years.
The plan was built collaboratively, I engaged faculty, staff, students, alumni, healthcare partners and the College's Board of Directors in a thoughtful planning process. It is a structured, accountable roadmap for a college that knows exactly what role it plays in this region.
The Joyce E. Lillis College of Nursing
The most significant near-term milestone of Building Our Future is the opening of the Joyce E. Lillis College of Nursing, scheduled for spring 2027. This 100% philanthropy-funded facility will replace an outdated campus building with purposefully designed classrooms and simulation labs outfitted with modern patient care technology, the kind of learning environment today's nursing students need and expect. You can see this important work taking shape as you enter the downtown corridor on 7th Street.
The impact is projected to be significant: Mercy College anticipates a 30% increase in enrollment within three years of the building’s opening. More nurses graduating means more Iowans cared for, more healthcare teams strengthened, and more of the talent pipeline filled that our region so urgently needs.
Why This Matters to You
Workforce availability is one of the most decisive factors in where businesses choose to locate, expand and invest. A Des Moines community that can demonstrate a growing, well-prepared pipeline of healthcare professionals is a community that can compete. Mercy College's critical work in educating compassionate and skilled healthcare professionals who will stay in Des Moines is critical economic development work.
As Building Our Future unfolds over the next four years, from the opening of the Joyce E. Lillis College of Nursing in 2027 through the plan’s full realization in 2030, the College isn't just shaping its own future. It's shaping ours.
Learn more at mchs.edu/strategicplan.
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