'We are in crisis': Nurses, lieutenant governor call for more budget money to address healthcare workforce
Jessica Van EgerenMADISON – With more than 40 years of experience working as a certified nursing assistant in the Milwaukee area, Demetrica Shipp only recently started earning $16 an hour. Her income makes it cost-prohibitive for her to pay for health insurance.
"I have high blood pressure. Sometimes I cut my meds in half because I have to have it every day," Shipp said at a Capitol news conference Tuesday. "But if you have to pay $160 a month and your light bill is $120, which one do you think you're going to pay?"
The third-generation healthcare worker has been drawn to the profession since she started going to work with her mom when she was 12. She saw how the patients' faces would "light up" when her mom walked in a room. She saw how the people she cared for became like a second family. Despite the pay, Shipp said, she's not turning her back on her patients.
Shipp, other CNA's and nurses, including Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, spoke about the increasing demands on healthcare workers as the state struggles with a workforce shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and expected to worsen as the population ages.
Gov. Tony Evers had included roughly $45 million in his two-year budget for two initiatives to retain and train more workers like Shipp, including $44.5 million to develop a minimum fee scale for home- and community-based health care services, such as workers who provide in-home care.
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The funding was among the more than 500 items stripped from Evers' proposed budget by Republicans on the state's budget-writing committee. Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, is co-chairman of the joint finance committee, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Tuesday that while the items were removed, other options would be explored to address the nursing shortage.
“The governor’s budget was unrealistic and unsustainable, creating numerous new programs and massively expanding the size of government," Born said. "Republicans will look for ways to build on our past investments in the long-term care industry and continue investing in health care throughout our state.”
The shortage of healthcare workers, which already exceeds 8,000 positions, is expected to reach 20,000 nurses within 12 years, at the same time a large percentage of the state's population — 1.4 million Wisconsinites — are turning 60 or older, according to Amy Pechacek, secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.
Dubbed the "Silver Tsunami," the needs of the aging population are hitting at the same time many are aging out of the healthcare workforce, according to a 2022 report from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. For example, vacancy rates for registered nurse positions more than doubled from 2020 to 2021, the data show. Some hospitals were offering signing bonuses, upward of $10,000, to compete for the shrinking pool of healthcare workers.
The pandemic did not help the situation. A poll of more than 900 state healthcare workers conducted by SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, the state's largest healthcare union, found 90% of caregivers believe understaffing is having a major negative impact on their patients; 86% had experienced stress or trauma during the pandemic; 85% felt like they are working in a war zone; 82% considered leaving the profession; and 19% know a coworker who has considered suicide.
Evers had included, but Republicans removed, $621,000 of state matching funds for a trauma recovery program that began last year in Dane County.
The matching funds would allow the program to continue by identifying key needs for the healthcare workforce and designing innovative solutions to promote mental health, continuing education, recruitment and retention. The program would also serve as a model for rebuilding, growing, and strengthening the resilience of the healthcare workforce, especially in more rural communities that have struggled with acute staffing shortages.
Alex Dudek started working as a registered nurse in 2019. Once the pandemic hit, Dudek was moved to a floor for COVID-19 patients. Dudek said the cries of a mother who had to watch from the other side of a window as her daughter died from COVID are one of many memories that haunts them.
"Politicians called nurses and healthcare workers heroes throughout the pandemic," they said. "Now it's time for them to walk the talk and actually treat us with the respect we deserve in the state budget."
At this point, members of the budget-writing committee can return the funding to the budget or the funding can be approved through separate pieces of legislation, Rodriguez said.
"This is not a joke. We are in a crisis," Rodriguez said. "We have many, many clinicians leaving the field and we are not going to have people to take care of our loved ones and ourselves."
Jessica Van Egeren is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's enterprise health reporter. She can be reached at jvanegeren@gannett.com.