Straight Talk

With two decades of professional experience at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee and a rich education that started with a practical nursing diploma from MATC, Bendzka can tell it like it is to today’s high school and college students who want to become tomorrow’s registered nurses.

“The idea of nursing being a calling has changed in the minds of many people,” said Bendzka, a Milwaukee native. “Nursing is hard work. It’s very rewarding work, but still hard work."

Hearing from a person in the profession, having a peer-to-peer conversation with someone who knows the landscape of policies and procedures, I think is very impactful. I believe they listen to that.”

Her no-nonsense perspective and straightforward talk helped Bendzka become one of the first medical center nursing recruiters in Wisconsin’s Veterans Affairs system, in September 2022.

Bendzka and her fellow nurse recruiter, Jennifer Scott, host career fairs, travel to area schools, attend job fairs, and have established a partnership with M3 (pronounced M-cubed), a collaboration between MATC, Milwaukee Public Schools, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The recruiters cover a 7,500-square-mile territory that includes 16 counties in southeastern and east-central Wisconsin.

Bendzka started as a recruiter in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made the job difficult. But she found success. She works with many colleges, including MATC. She encourages high school students who are thinking about nursing as a career to work at her facilities.

“We introduce them to the opportunities that we have and hopefully get them into entry-level positions such as a nurse’s assistant. Then we provide professional development in the way of financial support, mentorship, and educational guidance,” Bendzka explained.

Bendzka remembered her MATC nursing instructors as tough but fair. “I always said they were like bananas — soft on the inside but firm on the outside,” she said. “Classes started at 8 a.m., and the doors were closed by 8:05 a.m. Three tardies and you got kicked out of the class. But they taught us what we needed to know, and they reminded us that MATC was the important first step.”

She worked as a medical laboratory technician while attending classes and earned her diploma in 1999. She went on to get an associate degree in nursing from Cardinal Stritch University, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Concordia University, and a master’s degree in nursing from Western Governors University.

In 1999, she took a job at Milwaukee’s VA Medical Center, where she met her husband, also a nurse, while working on the spinal cord injury unit. They got married and now have an 18-year-old daughter.

“I can’t speak highly enough about what MATC did for me and my career,” Bendzka said. “It gave me the foundation for everything that came after.” ■

Nursing is an in-demand program at MATC. Read more about the Healthcare Pathway at matc.edu.