Safety and Professional Services teams with Wisconsin Technical Colleges to streamline healthcare licensing
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – To combat the health care shortage in the state, a partnership has formed. First News at Nine’s Dashal Mentzel has more on how this partnership will help healthcare students get into the field faster.
A new collaborative effort aims to streamline the professional licensing of students, guiding them into the state’s healthcare workforce quicker. Department of Safety Professional Services Secretary, Dan Hereth, says, “The demand is at a critical point. I mean, they’ve been talking about health care and workforce shortages since I was an undergrad in college almost 20 years ago. And so those realities are certainly playing out in terms of demographics, both in terms of people retiring from the workforce, from our health care workforce, as well as folks getting older and requiring more health care services.”
The collaboration between the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services and the Wisconsin Technical College System involves the License Educator Access Portal. College and university staff will be able to monitor students’ progress through the license application process. Hereth explains, “It’s a portal that allows our educational partners direct access to our licensing system to perform limited functions in that system. So, it means they can do bulk certification of graduation, which really allows us to kick start that licensing process even faster.”
Western Technical College President, Roger Stanford, says in his 32-year career, he has never seen a higher demand in healthcare, “What we have to do is get enough people interested, show them a great pathway and get a job. And right now, we have never had more openings in our region in healthcare and public safety. Let when you look at paramedic… when you look at fire… we look at law enforcement… these are all licensed credentials.”
Hereth says the partnership is a great leap forward, but there is still more that needs to be done, “The population growth and the growth of our licensed professions and our broader workforce has not kept up with the demand for services. And so that means we’ve got to work smarter. That’s what we’re trying to do on our end at the department. That also means we’ve got to train more professionals and we’ve got to attract more professionals into the workforce.”
In La Crosse, Dashal Mentzel First News at Nine.
Wisconsin DSPS announced similar collaborations with the Universities of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities late last year to offer Leap To Programs training healthcare students at their respective campuses.
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