A recently awarded grant of nearly $100,000 is slated to improve nursing education opportunities at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The Blue & You Foundation announced it would give UALR $95,801 for a manikin replacement program that will help the university purchase a SimMan 3G — a state-of-the-art human patient simulator.

Dr. Charles “Preston” Molsbee, associate professor and chair of the UALR Department of Nursing, said the new simulator will replace equipment that is reaching the end of its effective lifespan, a time when available company service and parts start to become scarce.  

“We’re grateful that the Blue & You Foundation agreed to fund this,“ Molsbee said. “We were very excited.”

This particular simulator recognizes and records the types of drugs, the dosages and how they’re administered — tasks that the current simulators at the college can’t do, said Dr. Jeffrey Carmack, assistant professor of nursing and director of simulation at the college. The simulator also recognizes the equipment used.

“It’s pretty intelligent as far as what it knows,” said Carmack, who led the effort at the Nursing Department to apply for the grant.

The sophistication of the simulator will help better prepare students for working with patients and will provide a more realistic experience, Carmack said. The new manikin can even cry, sweat, and bleed.

“It will help us catch more errors before they occur in the clinical setting, ” Carmack said, noting that the device will capture more nuances than the current equipment, providing additional effective education opportunities.

Anything that benefits UALR nursing students ultimately helps the healthcare community and patients in Arkansas, Molsbee said.

Simulators are “extremely important” in nursing education, Molsbee said. While students also train in a hospital setting on actual patients, the simulators allow instructors to put students in scenarios they might otherwise not experience, followed by extensive feedback and coaching.

Working with a simulator is often less intimidating for nursing students than other available options.

“They can make mistakes on a simulator and not injure (it),” Molsbee said.

In addition to the purchase of a new simulator, the grant will help fund training and certification, so faculty members will be qualified to service the simulator, potentially saving equipment downtime that might disrupt the learning process, Molsbee said.

The grant was one of 40 the Blue & You Foundation announced Nov. 13. In total, the foundation will distribute nearly $3 million to health improvement programs in Arkansas.