- What are the gaps that need to be covered?
- So we need to grow our workforce faster,
especially in big segments.
You know, the nursing workforce makes up over half of Wisconsin
hospital workforce.
In fact, every two out of three working
nurses in Wisconsin work for a hospital or a health system.
So the sustained shortage of
nurses puts a lot of pressure on hospitals, on nurses, and
the entire health care team.
The other segment of the workforce that we
have been working really hard on growing faster
for at least the past decade is the physician
workforce. Physicians are retiring at a faster rate
then we can replace them.
And that creates longer waits for patients, you
know, for clinic visits, for procedures, for specialty care.
So we really need to continue to work hard on growing more
physicians for Wisconsin.
- And on nursing, why is that area kind of a little bit
stubborn in its growth?
- You know, there are some encouraging signs. For the
last two years, applications and enrollments
to nursing schools have increased,
both two year and four year nursing
schools. That's a great sign.
Now the biggest challenge is making sure that there's
enough seats in the classroom.
The top two barriers that nursing schools identify are
faculty and clinical sites.
So if we can break down those two barriers, we can decrease
the number of applicants who are turned away from nursing school.