Wisconsin asks National Guard personnel to become certified nursing assistants

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Wisconsin asks National Guard personnel to become certified¹ nursing assistants

Transcript²

NPR's Debbie Elliott speaks with Associate Dean Lisa Greenwood about how Madison Area Technical College plans to train members of the states National Guard to become nursing assistants.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:

A record number of COVID cases in Wisconsin has pushed over half the state's hospitals to peak capacity. Nine out of every 10 hospital beds is filled, and 95% of the state's ICU beds are occupied. And nursing shortages are at crisis levels. So Wisconsin's governor, Tony Evers, is mobilizing the state National Guard and asking dozens of troops to become certified nursing aides.

Joining us now is Lisa Greenwood. She's an associate dean of nursing at Madison Area Technical College, which will be providing the training.

Good morning.

LISA GREENWOOD: Good morning. How are you?

ELLIOTT: I'm good. Did you ever think you'd be in this position, where you'd be training National Guard members to become nursing assistants?

GREENWOOD: Prior to the COVID pandemic, no, Debbie. However, you know, there's always been an acute shortage of nursing assistants, not only across the state but across the country - and that we're embarking³ on our two-year anniversary, and we have exhausted⁴ staff. We have demand that exceeds supply. It makes sense in this context and in this moment that Wisconsin is assessing and utilizing⁵ all of their resources necessary to help the communities across Wisconsin.

ELLIOTT: Sounds like it's just an unbelievable strain on the system.

GREENWOOD: These are very challenging times. It's been a long two years. Our staff in our long-term care facilities, our hospitals are beyond exhausted and they desperately⁶ need our help. And this is one solution to provide them some relief and to help provide high-quality care to the community members across the state of Wisconsin.

ELLIOTT: So let's talk exactly what you're going to be training these National Guard members to do.

GREENWOOD: Certainly. At Madison College, we are providing a 75-hour nurse aide training in the form of a digital badge or digital credentialing. And so there are a total of two badges and supervised practical training. Digital badge one completes the first 16 hours of a nurse aide course prior to any patient or resident contact. So it includes things like understanding and applying resident rights, safety, infection control and emergency procedures, as well as just good communication and interpersonal skills in that environment. The second digital badge really focuses on basic nursing skills - so things like activities of daily living, personal care skills - so helping⁷ with mobility⁸, feeding, walking, dressing⁹. Students also review, again, concepts of communication roles and responsibilities. And then we also provide supervised practical training in our labs, where our students will have the opportunity to practice those skills on individuals before they go to the area communities across Wisconsin as part of their deployment¹⁰ mission.

ELLIOTT: Now, this sounds like a lot of ground to cover. How soon do you expect to have these National Guard graduates out working in hospitals and in other settings?

GREENWOOD: Sure. Yep, that's an excellent question. We started our first deployment flight on January 10, and we are completing our first group actually this week. So we're completing this training in about nine to 10 days with the National Guard.

ELLIOTT: That's pretty quickly.

GREENWOOD: That's pretty quickly for 75 hours.

ELLIOTT: What are you hearing from the National Guard members that you're training? How are they responding to this role?

GREENWOOD: Sure. The National Guard members that we have the privilege of working with have been doing an incredible amount of work over the last couple of years with COVID. These are individuals who have been also assisting in efforts like screening across our communities and doing COVID testing. So these are individuals who actually have expressed an interest in this kind of work. They have been absolutely phenomenal students to work with - very dedicated¹¹, diligent¹², hardworking and excited about the work that they're doing.

ELLIOTT: How many National Guard members do you expect to train as nursing assistants through this process?

GREENWOOD: At this moment in time we have approximately 80 National Guard members, and we are in collaboration¹³ with the Department of Health Services, who was the organization who put the National Guard and Madison Area Technical College together. And we are planning a second wave of students for up to an additional 80 students starting the end of January.

ELLIOTT: Lisa Greenwood is associate dean of nursing at Madison Area Technical College.

Thank you so much.

GREENWOOD: Thank you.

1 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 embarking   

乘船( embark的现在分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• He's embarking on a new career as a writer. 他即将开始新的职业生涯——当一名作家。
• The campaign on which were embarking was backed up by such intricate and detailed maintenance arrangemets. 我们实施的战争，须要如此复杂及详细的维护准备。

4 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

5 utilizing   

v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Utilizing an assembler to produce a machine-language program. 用汇编程序产生机器语言的过程。 来自辞典例句
• The study and use of devices utilizing properties of materials near absolute zero in temperature. 对材料在接近绝对零度时的特性进行研究和利用的学科。 来自辞典例句

6 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

9 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

10 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

11 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

12 diligent   

adj.勤勉的，勤奋的

参考例句：

• He is the more diligent of the two boys.他是这两个男孩中较用功的一个。
• She is diligent and keeps herself busy all the time.她真勤快，一会儿也不闲着。

13 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。