CLEVELAND — Two medical centers are looking overseas to help fill nursing staff openings.

        The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals have hired agencies to recruit foreign nurses, the first of whom will begin reporting for work early next year.

        “I see it as only one of a variety of tactics within a strategy to try to get more people into nursing and get some nurses into the pipeline,” said Charlene Phelps, senior vice president of nursing at University Hospitals, which is adjacent to the campus of Case Western Reserve University.

        She said nearly 100 nursing jobs have gone unfilled at the hospital for 1 1/2 years.

        The American Hospital Association reports there are more than 125,000 nursing vacancies in hospitals nationwide, as fewer people enter the profession and some nurses leave the field.

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