MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development predicts Wisconsin could have a deficit of nearly 20,000 nurses by 2040.
Daniel Wright, the chief nursing officer at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, is working to combat the expected workforce shortage.
“There is a large aging workforce going into retirement, and we also have a growing population of seniors who are going to need care as they get older. So those two things combined create this emerging need for more nurses,” Wright said.
Wright said he always felt called to nursing, but it wasn’t his first career. When he was 28-years-old, he left his job in the insurance industry and cashed in his 401k to go to nursing school.
“It was really an all or nothing moment for me, but I knew that if I was passionate about something in the nursing field and the profession, that I would be successful,” he said.
Now part of Wright’s job is helping attract more people to the field by working to hire, train, support and retain nurses. He helps organize job fairs and is building partnerships with schools, universities and nursing programs.
He said since July 2023, more than 80% of nurse interns at Columbia St. Mary's became staff members.
“We want people who are passionate, committed and dedicated to helping others,” he said.
Two of the newest nurses on Wright’s team, Sophie Lynch and Emily Scott, started working at Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital a few months ago.
Lynch works in labor and delivery and said, from her own experience, teaching kids and teenagers early-on about opportunities in the nursing field is crucial.
“We had career day in middle and high school and having that opportunity to talk to professionals in different ways was really helpful for me to discern where I thought I would fit,” she said.
Scott works in the neuroscience intensive care unit. She said witnessing the strong connection a nurse can make with a patient also inspires a lot of people to get into the field. That was her experience when her mom went through cancer twice.
“Seeing the way the nurses cared for my mother, cared for me, cared for my family — it made a world of difference. So, ever since a young age, I knew that I wanted to make that same type of impact,” she said.