Former Mayor of Houston, Bob Lanier with Barbara Hayley
The Gulf Coast Health Services Steering Committee was formed in 2000 by The WorkSource, in conjunction with the Greater Houston Partnership, as an industry-based hospital workforce development group. Senior executives from area hospitals, health care systems, and academic institutions joined forces to improve the quantity and quality of trained health care workers for the Gulf Coast region. Our first and primary focus is the nursing shortage facing our community.
The GCHSSC oversees as variety of activities to develop more collaborative relationships between business and education. Its work over the past three years has focused on activities that will allow us to grow our own adequate supply of nurses for the region. The Committee has helped to (1) increase the capacity of local schools to enroll and graduate nurses, (2) increase the supply of nurses by training current hospital employees to become nurses, and (3) raised awareness regarding the critical importance of a positive working environment in hospitals for nurses and stimulated activities to improve those environments.
The GCHSSC operates through four primary work groups, each led by senior health care executives of member organizations.
Dr. Kathy Shingleton and Barbara Hayley co-chair the work envirnment group, Teamwork and Interpersonal Communication. Barbara has served on this committee since 2004.
We have an annual Go for the Gold Conference in support of this mission.
