Workforce Report

Wisconsin’s Health Care Workforce: Challenges Persist, Solutions Must Accelerate

The Wisconsin Hospital Association’s 2025 Health Care Workforce Report reveals a critical reality: while vacancy rates are beginning to stabilize, the demand for health care professionals continues to outpace workforce growth. Wisconsin’s aging population is driving higher health care needs, yet workforce shortages remain a challenge across hospitals and health systems statewide.

With one-third of health care professions still experiencing double-digit vacancy rates, WHA’s report underscores the urgent need for action. Efforts like health care apprenticeships, “Grow Our Own” matching grants and expanded nursing education pathways are helping—but not fast enough. Regulatory barriers, administrative burdens and workforce inefficiencies continue to slow progress.

Read the full 2025 WHA Health Care Workforce Report to learn how we can strengthen Wisconsin’s health care workforce for the future.

• Provide interested individuals with health care career exposure, experience and support
• Actively debate the pros and cons of adding time, requirements and costs to educational pathways
• Create expanded faculty roles for experienced nurses to increase capacity at nursing schools
• Sustain funding to “Grow Our Own” Wisconsin physicians, advanced practice clinicians and allied health professionals
  
  

• Make reimbursement models and regulation more flexible to support unique patient and family needs within the bounds of available community resources and systems of care
• Update state law to support patient and family decision-making as they seek post-acute care to relieve bottlenecks in the continuum of care
• Set reasonable requirements and ensure the added benefit outweighs the additional work required, or the barriers to access created, before creating new regulations or requirements
  
  

• Recognize the potential of new models of care aided by technology, such as telehealth monitoring, recovery care at home and hospital at home through updated reimbursement and regulation
• Identify opportunities to optimize the use of technology, simulation and artificial intelligence to enhance educational pathways, care for patients and work for clinicians with needed guardrails, but not unnecessary barriers