August 20, 2021By Lance Baily

Sentinel U Product Portfolio Presents Realistic, Virtual Patient Encounters

In the world of clinical simulation, virtual patient simulation scenarios and learning modules have become increasingly in demand. To help meet this need, Sentinel U has developed a number of digital solutions designed to sharpen clinical reasoning, decision-making skills, and critical thinking competency while learners face realistic patient encounters. According to the company, learners benefit from robust learning experiences that independent research has shown to be effective and to achieve required competencies. This HealthySimulation.com article highlights the various solutions developed by Sentinel U, while sharing product benefits and features as well.

Community Health Platforms

Sentinel City: Sentinel City, Sentinel U’s flagship innovation, is an online learning platform that teaches community and population health through an engaging and rewarding screen-based virtual experience. Aligned with QSEN Quality and Safety Competencies, new AACN Essentials, NLN Core Competencies, and Quad Council Core Competencies, this resource allows learners to practice critical thinking, observation and care planning in a risk-free environment.


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Available in Fall 2021, Sentinel City v.5 allows for datasets to meet Public Health core competencies such as biostatistics, epidemiology, demography, workplace health, infectious diseases, community assessment and program planning and evaluation. Using these datasets, a public health nurse can make assessments in the areas of community health status, social determinants of health, social justice and disease prevention. Sentinel U’s robust datasets are accurate, reliable, and cited.

Sentinel Town: Sentinel Town is a teaching tool that allows faculty members to choose from a variety of assignments to drive desired learning outcomes. Designed for both pre-licensure (ADN and BSN) and post-licensure (RN-BSN) programs, Sentinel Town offers learners the chance to study Community or Population Health Nursing in an environment that they would typically not be able to access. Each trip into Sentinel Town is a unique adventure where learners have the opportunity to practice dealing with a healthcare environment, without leaving home. Sentinel Town also gives nurse educators a supplemental teaching tool for nursing education texts at pre-licensure (ADN and BSN), and post-licensure (RN-BSN) programs.

Sentinel City Canada: Sentinel City Canada is an online learning platform that teaches community and population health through an engaging and rewarding screen-based virtual experience based in a virtual Canadian setting. Originally developed to teach nursing students how to conduct windshield surveys, Sentinel City Canada now includes 22 assignments and our Family Support and Home Assessment virtual clinical scenario.

Virtual Clinical Simulations


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Prioritization of Care Hospital: Prioritization of Care online nursing scenarios feature 40 unique patients with symptoms ranging from early-stage heart failure and respiratory distress to orthopedic pain, and depression. Learners record vital signs, interview, then chart observations and rationale in SBAR format. Students then prioritize patients for treatment. Remediation is immediately provided, success earns achievement badges, and students learn at their own pace.

Prioritization of Care Clinic: Prioritization of Care Clinic offers students more opportunity to practice their critical thinking decision-making skills and earn 4-6 simulated clinical hours and practice experience. This Virtual Clinical Scenario features all the benefits of Prioritization of Care – with new, in-demand skill categories, settings and achievement badges.

Patient Management and Delegation: In this scenario, learners will step into the shoes of a Charge Nurse and have to practice clinical judgment and decision-making skills related to setting acuities, scheduling, delegating and prioritizing patient care. As learners work with each of the 56 patients through five levels that progress in complexity, they use “big picture” insight to assign these patients to nurses depending on the nurse’s experience, record of efficiency and overall caseload. Working from SBAR handoff reports and staff nurse details, learners will take on high levels of responsibility and learn to plan, coordinate and evaluate nursing resources in an engaging environment that offers no risk to patients and staff but feels very real.

Nursing Quality Indicators: This scenario provides background, an electronic medical record (EMR), test results and imaging for each patient; as learners make positive decisions, they will earn badges, but more importantly, they will build knowledge, skills, and confidence. As learners evaluate ten patients, they will immediately see how their care decisions affect structure, outcome, process, and cost. At the end of the scenario, there is an automated report that displays the total number of correct responses for each person.

Family Support and Home Assessments: In this scenario, learners immerse themselves in a home environment where they practice interview skills, identify potential environmental, health and safety hazards, and build a care plan that they can support and rationalize. This provides them the opportunity to practice psychosocial assessment and charting techniques before venturing into potentially risky environments. The situation that the learner encounters allows them to draw on their knowledge of OB, pediatrics, underserved populations and more. The goal for the learner in this scenario is to visit the home of a single mother, virtually tour the environment, and use their observations to build a care plan that will put all parties on a path to better physical and mental health.

Prioritization of Care Specialty Series: Throughout 10 virtual clinicals focused on high-level skills, learners record vital signs, interview patients and chart the observations and rationale in SBAR format. Each module in the series provides immediate remediation and conveys total correct responses to help students build decision-making confidence by working through progressively more difficult patient assessment and prioritization assignments. Students then prioritize patients for treatment and select and prioritize the interventions for each patient.

Interprofessional Teams: Interprofessional Teams virtual clinical series is designed specifically for healthcare leaders, practicing nurses, and nursing students who are sharpening their communication and collaboration skills. In the first module, the learner meets Jenny, a 9-year-old who is struggling in the fourth grade; in subsequent modules, the learner will watch Jenny’s case study unfold and will address her physical and psychosocial issues over multiple decades in her life.

The learner will act as the lead nurse who assesses Jenny and conducts a patient inquiry session, honing therapeutic communication techniques. After identifying the patient’s needs, the learner will select five interprofessional team members, based on their scope of practice, to further manage and evaluate the patient. Next, the learner will observe the group collaboration process, recognize challenges and barriers within the team, and guide the conversation by making decisions that result in positive impacts on the team and, ultimately, patient-centered care.



Telehealth Series: In these realistic virtual clinicals, the learner, in a hospital setting, conducts a virtual office visit with the remote patient, reviewing data and selecting telehealth tools to monitor specific parameters. In-depth dialog, and immediate feedback with rationales for correct and incorrect answers, immerses the learner in the telehealth visit. Each virtual clinical includes a faculty guide, feedback and rationales, a dashboard with evaluative report, and a learner dashboard.

More About Sentinel U

Sentinel U, formerly Healthcare Learning Innovations, is an e-learning company that works to meet the evolving needs of healthcare education and training by providing simulation-based technologies and virtual learning tools. Founded in 2013, Sentinel U helps advance nursing academic education and healthcare professional training through virtual clinicals that are engaging, effective, and economic. Aligning outcomes with AACN BSN Essentials, QSEN Competencies, and NCLEX categories, Sentinel U provides nursing learners and practicing nurses with online simulations that are convenient to safely practice healthcare and patient scenarios anywhere, at any time, while earning virtual clinical hours.

All virtual simulations and clinicals are designed by Sentinel U’s nursing faculty to help ensure that users can confidently and seamlessly map directly to AACN essentials, QSEN competencies, and NCLEX categories. According to Sentinel U, learners benefit from robust learning experiences that independent research has shown to be effective and to achieve required competencies.

The goals of Sentinel U’s digital solutions are to sharpen clinical reasoning, decision-making skills, and critical thinking competency while facing realistic patient encounters. They can also be used to practice community health and population health in a risk-free environment, and engage in realistic patient encounters across healthcare simulation settings.

Learn More About Sentinel U


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