WHA’s Council on Workforce Development invited guests from the Wisconsin Healthcare Human Resources Association (WisHHRA) to their April 26 meeting for a demonstration of the Iowa Hospital Association’s (IHA’s) compensation, benefits and salary survey process.
Both WisHHRA and WHA collect workforce data, and IHA’s process may offer a platform to combine the expertise and information gathering of each. WHA’s Council was supportive of further exploring the opportunity IHA’s platform could provide. One Council member noted, “I’m willing to submit data and participate in the surveys because I use them all,” adding, “If we can partner to get consistent, valuable data, that’s even better.”
The Council also discussed the pros and cons of a legislative proposal to reduce Wisconsin’s minimum requirements for training and clinical hours for certified nursing assistants to mirror federal requirements. Wisconsin requires 120 hours of training with at least 32 of those hours being supervised clinical hours. Federal regulation requires 75 hours with 16 of those hours being supervised clinical hours. The Council agreed that regardless of whether training hours are changed, it would be helpful to monitor the success of training programs by following metrics like certification pass rates.
Readers interested in growing segments of their workforce, better utilizing their existing workforce, or reducing regulatory burden on health care teams can contact WHA Vice President of Workforce and Clinical Practice
Ann Zenk or any member of WHA’s Government Relations team at 608-274-1820.