UAA gets $725,000 for nursing simulation equipment at rural campus sites

The University of Alaska Anchorage will buy simulation equipment for nursing students at its rural campus sites with a $725,000 federal grant. The Health Resources and Services Administration signed the award Sept. 14. The award carries no local match.

UAA's project description in the award record says simulation is "of particular value" when clinical practice sites are limited. The project would help students "complete nursing degrees in underserved areas of Alaska, ultimately filling a significant health workforce need," the description says. The grant runs from Sept. 30 through Sept. 29, 2027.

At an April 23 hearing of the Alaska State House Health and Social Services Committee, UAA Associate Dean Cary Moore was presenting the nursing program when a legislator asked what most limits its growth. The answer, Moore said, is "faculty recruitment and clinical placements." Rural students especially need more placements, Moore told the committee: "We can't accept more students than what we have clinical placements for."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested the money. Her request list for the federal labor, health and education spending bill, certified May 16, 2025, carries a $725,000 line titled "Rural Health Simulation Equipment" for the University of Alaska.

The UAA grant is one of six HRSA equipment awards to Alaska recipients that started Sept. 30.

• The City of Fairbanks received $728,000 for a medical ambulance bus.

• The Alaska Department of Health received $550,000 for death investigation imaging.

• Ketchikan received $347,000 for an ambulance and cardiac monitor.

• Seldovia Village Tribe received $332,000 for clinical equipment.

• Copper River EMS Council received $291,000.

The six awards total about $2.97 million.

UAA offers the nursing bachelor's degree in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Mat-Su, and the associate degree in 12 other communities, from Bethel and Kotzebue to Petersburg and Valdez, according to its School of Nursing. The award record names no sites, lists no equipment and does not say how the money will be split among sites.