MILWAUKEE — Amid an ongoing shortage of nurses and health care workers across Wisconsin, two University of Wisconsin schools have teamed up.

UW-Platteville is giving students on campus a chance to earn a Bachelor of Science in biology while remotely earning a Bachelor of Science in nursing from UW-Oshkosh, all without ever having to leave the UW-Platteville campus.

“Really, from our perspective, being a regional comprehensive institution,” said Dr. Wayne Weber, the interim provost at UW-Platteville. “We’re in a rural area and we know there are health care professional shortages throughout the nation, but when you think about the Midwest and you think about rural areas, that situation is even more acute.”

Weber said that roughly a dozen UW-Platteville students are on track for the dual degree in a program that, to him, simply made sense for the school and for the community at large.

“We looked at our friends at UW-Oshkosh,” Weber said. “Because they have a recognized nursing program that has received a ton of accolades, and talking with them, it was very refreshing because they had the attitude of, ‘Okay, let’s be innovative. Let’s think about how we can work together.’ So we’re all kind of in alignment in the way that we were thinking.”

Watch the full interview above.