Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Visits Wausau Campus of Medical College of Wisconsin

Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 -- 8:01 AM

(Mike Leischner, WSAU) Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor visited the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Wausau campus shortly after announcing that she would chair a new task force dedicated to solving an anticipated worker shortage in healthcare, according to Mike Leischner with WSAU.

“[We are] going to look at areas where we need to bolster this critical infrastructure,” said Sara Rodriguez. “Whether that is nursing, CNA, or physician shortages- which we do have across the state.”

Rodriguez says many rural areas already have issues, and it’s only a matter of time before the problem spreads to other areas. “We are struggling to recruit a healthcare workforce. This is the kind of thing that this task force can work on.”

According to the Governor’s office, the state could see a shortage of up to 20,000 nurses by 2040. Rodriguez says their job will be finding creative ways to keep the problem from getting that bad.

“We will be able to come up with some recommendations that the Governor can put in his budget moving forward as well as administrative fixes. If there are things that we can do, great, we will be able to make those recommendations to the Governor and different [levels of government] across the state."

“I know we are [in absolute need] of real-world solutions,” added Rodriguez. The task force will include representatives from the state Department of Health Services and Department of Workforce Development along with representatives from the state’s colleges and universities.

A first meeting date for the group hasn’t been set.

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