MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin's shortage of healthcare workers needs solutions now to avoid a crisis in the next decade, according to experts in the field.
During a panel discussion hosted by WisPolitics and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee experts from higher education, long-term care, and the state legislature sounded off on the challenges facing the workforce including daunting amounts of debt, socioeconomic barriers, and mounting job responsibilities.
"As our population ages, we're going to become sicker and if we don't solve that problem now across the entire state, we're going to have a healthcare crisis in 10 to 20 years," said Wendy Huddleston, associate professor and the director of the physical therapy program at UW-Milwaukee.
Huddleston was among the four-person panel that included Nicole Pretre, president and CEO of Cedar Community, Leonard Egede, professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and State Senator Patrick Testin who serves on the Joint Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Health.
All four agreed that the pandemic exacerbated the existing workforce challenges.
Huddleston pointed out that disenfranchisement in Milwaukee has helped foster distrust in the entire health system and deterred communities of people from pursuing health-related careers.
"I think that that is fundamental to fixing our health care crisis. We have to make a health care system that people trust working with people who are either underinsured or uninsured," Huddleston explained.
The discussion also weighed possible solutions including addressing costs of education and debt, promoting work-life balance, reforming regulatory measures, and marketing Wisconsin as a destination
Brigette Bendzka worked as a nurse at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center for more than two decades. Last fall, she became a full-time nurse recruiter at the VA to combat the nursing shortage.
One way they're doing it is by targeting high school students and getting them into entry-level jobs.
"Introducing them to the opportunities that we have at the VA, getting them in at a low-level entry position such as a nurse's assistant. Then mentoring them and providing professional development in the way of financial support, mentorship," Bendzka explained.
As Bendzka's team gets ready for a big recruitment event at the VA on March 8, she keeps scrubs at her desk ready to help patients at a moment's notice when the hospital is short.
"In the next five years we may need 75,000 nurses over our VA industry so it's very important to get the message out that nursing while it's hard work it's very rewarding work," Bendzka said.
