UALR is receiving more than $100,000 in grant funding from The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas.

The foundation will provide $102,608 for the purchase of two pediatric simulation models, to help incorporate pediatric simulation in the current clinical rotation for the UALR Department of Nursing.

About 200 nursing students enrolled in the associate degree program will benefit from the additional hands-on experience that working on the models will provide, according to SimLab Director and Assistant Professor Jeff Carmack.

The funding gives SimCare educators better ability to help their students learn to care for school-age patients using appropriately sized high-fidelity mannequins, he said.

“The mannequins will be much more lifelike and have better capabilities to improve the interaction, assessment, and treatment of complex health problems,” Carmack said.

“The nursing faculty at UALR truly appreciate the foundation for providing us this grant, so we may better train the nurses of the future.”

The Blue & You Foundation awards grants annually to nonprofit or governmental organizations and programs that positively affect the health of Arkansans. It has awarded more than$2.6 million to 42 health improvement programs for 2014.