Grayson College CWL and Texoma Medical Center receive grant for nurses’ training

A series of two grants has paved the way for a partnership between the Grayson College Center for Workplace Learning and Texoma Medical Center, which accepted the second grant from the Texas Workforce Commission on Wednesday. Funds from the $186,596 grant will be used to provide advanced specialty training in 14 different area for TMC nurses.

“We have struggled the past couple of sessions with how do we deal with the nursing shortage, and we haven’t, and it’s bad. This helps,” said local state Rep. Larry Phillips.

TMC officials said the additional training will help provide better quality care for patients. “It’s our family, our kids and our grandkids that are going to be a lot healthier,” Phillips said.

As partners thanked their staffs and the commission, focus shifted away from the 135 nurses who will receive new training to the value of the partnership between GC, TMC and Workforce Solutions Texoma.

“In today’s economy, partnerships are the way we’re going to survive,” said Grayson College President Jeremy McMillen. “We can do much more together than we can separately.”

The grant that was presented on Wednesday was the second phase, with the first grant coming to the local partners approximately a year-and-a-half ago. At approximately $65,000, it was also used to fund nurses’ training at TMC, though the training from that round was more basic, said CWL Executive Director Jan Crumpton.

Officials said the two grants have helped one of the county’s largest employers and its community college form a working relationship where assistance is only a phone call away.

“Partnerships are so critical,” said Texas Workforce Commissioner Tom Pauken, who presented the grant check. “We’ve got limited resources so we’ve got to figure out how to maximize those resources in the most effective way.”