Addressing Critical Arkansas Delta Healthcare Disparities: Arkansas State University - Jonesboro Mental and Maternal-Infant Healthcare Simulation Building - Arkansas State University (A-State) in Jonesboro requests $9,000,000 to construct and equip a new Mental and Maternal-Infant Healthcare Simulation Building within its College of Nursing and Health Professions. A-State is the highest producer of nursing graduates in Arkansas, yet enrollment is constrained by inadequate, obsolete clinical simulation space. This project expands and modernizes that capacity to address severe mental and maternal-infant healthcare workforce shortages and persistent health disparities in the Arkansas Delta Region and statewide. Arkansas’s outcomes lag the nation: it has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S., ranks second in infant mortality, and has the nation’s highest maternal mortality rate---roughly 92 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly three times the national average---with 91% of pregnancy-related deaths deemed preventable. The suicide rate is about 16% above the national average, and veteran suicide is markedly higher. The rural Delta Region, running south along the Mississippi River, fares worse still, containing many of the state’s lowest-ranked counties for health outcomes, provider shortages, and maternity care “deserts.” The roughly 13,000-square-foot facility will nearly double A-State’s simulation capacity. It will house simulation labs and control rooms, clinical skills labs, debriefing rooms, a lecture hall, offices, and storage, equipped with high-fidelity manikins and telehealth-capable technology for high-risk obstetric, newborn, neonatal (NICU), and psychiatric scenarios using standardized patients across the lifespan. This enables A-State to increase enrollment in its clinic-ready AASN, BSN, BSW, and MSW programs by 33% or more and boost production of MSN Psychiatric Mental Health, Family, and Acute Care Gerontology Nurse Practitioners by 25%. Specifically, the project will grow combined on-site AASN/BSN enrollment from 540 toward 800-plus students (a 50% increase, recapturing roughly 350 qualified applicants turned away in 2024), support about 600 remote MSN Nurse Practitioner students, and sustain BSW and MSW training---raising the total future-provider pipeline from approximately 1,360 to 1,770. Because most Nurse Practitioner students are rural residents trained 100% online, the facility’s telehealth platform extends mental and maternal-infant training directly into underserved communities. A key secondary purpose is to enable the A-State Beck Center for Veterans to deliver free, real-time mental health care to remote and geographically isolated Arkansas veterans through a secure, telehealth-capable platform staffed by licensed clinical social workers and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner faculty, reaching veterans coping with PTSD, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and depression. The project will also expand interprofessional simulation with the co-located New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. Measurable objectives and performance standards include: increasing the total provider pipeline from 1,360 to 1,770; reducing course repeats and cohort recycling to open additional seats; increasing graduates proportionally; expanding graduates serving as mental and maternal-infant healthcare providers in the Delta and statewide; improving NCLEX licensure success and speeding transitions to practice; and establishing telehealth mental health services for veterans. Together, these outcomes directly advance the Arkansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee’s recommendations to address mental health and substance use disorders to improve maternal health through education and best-practice implementation.
