NURS FPX 6112 Assessment 4 Implementation Plan for a New Simulation Product

Slide 1

• Implementation Plan for a New Simulation Product

Hi, I am ________. The presentation examines the case of Sentinel U, which is a Web-based simulation platform that has been used to enhance the clinical reasoning of nursing students in physical examinations, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. According to the proposal, there are identified needs assessment with current educational gaps, a stepwise introduction plan during the core courses, and measurable outcome measures. Using the evidence-based research, the presentation is aimed at achieving competence and confidence among students with the help of standardized virtual patient vignettes. The pervasive nature of Sentinel U will facilitate the growth of nursing education as it will complement the existing clinical training methods.

Slide 2

• Overview of the Technology

The proposed system is Sentinel U, a web-based simulation system that will be used to provide a step forward in nursing education through immersive virtual patient cases that mirror real clinical practice. The technology integrates the key nursing practice domains, physical assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology into vibrant interactive case studies that promote clinical reasoning and decision-making. It involves the interactions of students with virtual patients, during which they take health histories, interpret symptoms, read diagnostic information, and select the most suitable interventions within a safe environment (Ahn and Jeong, 2025).

The platform gives a chance to study independently and get feedback immediately, which means that the learner will be able to obtain the outcomes of the decision-making process and improve their clinical judgment over time. Sentinel U is particularly applicable in preclinical and first-year clinical rotation levels, whereby students have a systematic exposure to complex patient conditions before exposure to actual patients.

The simulator’s material is inclusive of medical-surgical, pediatric, maternal-child, and mental health scenarios. As an illustration, students can be offered a virtual patient with hypertension and peripheral neuropathy, to which they should examine blood pressure trends, test neuropharmacological symptoms, and decide whether medication changes are necessary according to the pharmacological principles.

Sentinel U modules may provide practical application of theoretical knowledge in modules such as Fundamentals of Nursing, Advanced Health Assessment, and Pharmacology for Nurses that will be supported by the research of Best et al. (2021). As a cloud-based system, it is scalable to hybrid or entirely online programs, making it adaptable to academic programs and clinical training settings.

Slide 3

• Addressing the Educational Gap

A relevant gap has been found in a recent needs analysis whereby nursing students do not have confidence in their ability to use theoretical knowledge in clinical decision-making in pathophysiology, physical assessment, and pharmacology. Access to practice experiences and inconsistent clinical placements is a barrier to many students in being able to relate disease processes to related interventions (Panda et al., 2021).

Besides, educators mention the inability to provide individual feedback in high-fidelity manikin simulations due to the lack of resources and time constraints. Sentinel U has the ability to fill this gap through offering scalable, repeatable, and standard virtual experiences, which allow students to practice clinical reasoning in safety without the need to use physical simulation labs or access to clinical sites.

There is continuous exposure to various types of cases, requiring the combination of physical diagnoses, understanding of the underlying pathophysiology, and safe pharmacologic treatment by adding Sentinel U to the curriculum. To illustrate, a student who is presented with a virtual diabetic patient with ketoacidosis needs to derive meaning out of laboratory data, detect respiratory compensations, and calculate insulin dosage, all bearing in mind comorbid conditions and drug interactions (Mahou et al., 2023). This level of mental labor strengthens the connection between the classroom theory and clinical practice so that the students are competent and confident to face real-world patient care.

Slide 4

• Needs Assessment

The needs assessment conducted by means of surveys, focus groups, and analysis of performance data concerning 120 nursing students and 15 faculty members showed that there were several significant problems related to the current teaching practice. Over two-thirds of the students said that they were poorly equipped to perform detailed physical examinations independently, but 65% said that they had difficulty transferring pharmacological principles to evolving situations with patients.

It was reported that high-fidelity manikin training, even though beneficial, was limited to one session per semester for each student due to equipment and staffing constraints, which is also in line with the results of Abulfaraj et al. (2021). Also, 70% of the educators said that the students often reached clinical rotations with poor clinical reasoning ability, which led to increased anxiety and poor learning.

Poorer exam scores on pathophysiology integration (mean of 72) and drug application (mean of 68) compared to recall of the foundational knowledge (mean of 85) were also shown by course outcome analysis. These findings lead to the conclusion of a gap between theory and practice, which highlights the possibility of more convenient, stable, and interactive learning tools that facilitate higher-order thinking skills.

Slide 5

• Necessity and Potential Impact of Sentinel U

Sentinel U comes in as a direct response to these gaps that are known to exist, since it is a versatile and evidence-based mechanism that enhances accessibility and repetition in clinical decision-making practice. Unlike high-fidelity manikins, which require significant infrastructure and human resources, Sentinel U can be remotely accessed, and the learners can practice their simulations anytime and multiple times (Abulfaraj et al., 2021).

This type of multiple exposure accrues vast knowledge regarding how the disease progresses, how the medications affect it, and how an assessment is to be done, which is vital as far as safe patient care is concerned. The potential outcome is that there will be more student preparedness for clinical rotations, critical thinking, and stronger incorporation of inter-professional knowledge.

There is anecdotal data and empirical evidence that supports the usefulness of virtual simulations to improve knowledge recall and clinical judgments; a study by Salacinska et al. (2025) indicates that diagnostic accuracy was higher among students who underwent virtual simulation when compared to students who only underwent traditional lectures. With the Sentinel U curriculum, the curriculum can be able to standardize the learning process, reduce variability in clinical readiness, and also guarantee that every student has mastered core competencies before advancing to high-stakes clinical environments.

Slide 6

• Integration Strategy

To incorporate Sentinel U in the existing nursing departments in a smooth fashion, a three-step implementation will be carried out in three required courses: Fundamentals of Nursing, Pathophysiology for Practicing Nurses, and Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The classes will include two to three mandatory Sentinel U courses based on the weekly learning objectives. As an example, in Pathophysiology, the simulation of heart failure will involve the students to learn how to interpret changes in vital signs, understand the compensatory responses, and predict the potential complications.

These modules will be used by faculty as pre-clinical preparation or post-lecture reinforcement, and will go hand in hand with didactic content. The Learning Management System (LMS) provided by the institution will make the integration possible as it will allow teachers to track the performance of the students, view the performance data, and evaluate the students based on the checklist completion and correct decision-making, according to the study conducted by Oguguo et al. (2020).

The teacher dashboard of Sentinel U will help to track the common errors in real-time and identify them to respond to these mistakes in a timely manner. Interprofessional interaction between nursing teachers and sim lab coordinators will bring standardization of learning outcomes of virtual and practical modalities.

Slide 7

• Staff Training and User Preparation

The training team of Sentinel U will be in charge of training all simulating nursing instructors and simulation staff through a two-week orientation program before roll-out. It entails real-time webinars, a special support portal, and the use of practice with pilot cases. The employees will be trained on how to assign scenarios, read student performance reports, and do debriefs after the simulation results.

Preparation of lead instructors will be done using a train-the-trainer strategy, after which they will proceed to mentor the other colleagues in each department, as Wisshak et al. (2025) suggest. The students will be oriented at orientation week, having a tutorial video, a guided tour of a simple simulation, and a practice module that does not have any penalty to academics. There will be technical support staff to assist with login issues or compatibility with devices. To achieve access equity, students without access to reliable technology will receive loaner laptops and wireless hotspots, according to the requirements of ADA conformity and digital inclusion.

Slide 8

• Benefits and Enhancements

The exposure to a real-life situation in which the students are required to make a decision enhances their competence in physical examination, pathophysiology, and pharmacology to a great degree. Physical examination: the learners will learn to rank the findings, such as the presence of crackles in the lungs during the process of lung auscultation of an imaginary patient with pneumonia, and tie this information to patient history and laboratory results (Kinyon et al., 2021).

Even though haptic feedback is absent, the process of data interpretation and hypothesis building is strictly defined in the mind. In the case of pathophysiology, the system makes the picture of how diseases progress, thus students can see how hypertension without control leads to destruction of the end-organs over time, and how this supports care problems in the long term. In the case of pharmacology, Sentinel U enables the student to work with medication regimens in context.

A simulation example of a warfarin patient who has rising INR measures necessitates learners to evaluate the risk of bleeding, consider reversal agents, and communicate with the health team in the framework of a scaffolded presentation. This promotes drug awareness, clinical priority, and safety. The fact that the platform centers around cause and effect contributes to the three areas being integrated, which further equips students to make evidence-based, whole-system decisions.

Slide 9

• Evidence-Based Support and Case Studies

A plethora of research in favor of the effectiveness of virtual simulations like Sentinel U to improve educational outcomes is available. In agreement with the studies by Burnett and Goldhaber-Fiebert (2024), the score of pharmacology examination in virtual simulation-trained students was 30% higher than that of the control groups. Similarly, Cant and Ryan (2022) developed the idea that virtual simulations developed one-quarter advancements in the accuracy of diagnosis reasoning among the undergraduate nursing students.

A comparative study conducted by Salacinska et al. (2025) has shown that critical thinking tests were increased in the users of virtual simulation than with only the conventional methods, particularly in detecting subtle alterations in patient condition. In one case study, a student confused sepsis with dehydration in a virtual case, which was then corrected through instant feedback and enabled reflection, succeeded in recognizing systemic inflammatory response in subsequent cases. This learning cycle model illustrates how Sentinel U facilitates metacognition and self-correction, two of the most important clinical practices.

Slide 10

• Evaluation Metrics

The success of Sentinel U integration will be evaluated on the basis of a multi-method evaluation. Short-term outcomes include performance on simulation-specific checklists, scores on pre and post- simulators on quizzes, and faculty ratings regarding clinical judgment during debriefing. The analytics platform, LMS, and Sentinel U will track the completion rates, the time spent on each module, patterns of mistakes, and the correctness of decisions.

The surveys of the perceived usefulness, confidence, and satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale will be used to monitor student engagement (Buntins et al., 2021). The performance in the long run will be assessed using benchmark comparisons of NCLEX-type examination performance, score of rotation evaluation, and scores of passing in OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations). Clinical reasoning and application gains will be measured with comparison group students of the previous academic year (pre-implementation).

Slide 11

• Remediation and Continuous Improvement

A remediation plan will be put in place for the struggling students who have simulation performance. Learners scoring less than 75% in any of the modules will have to go through a facilitated review with a tutor, redo the scenario, and write a reflective journal entry of their new choices.

The student data will be studied by the staff to identify the misconceptions of the most common ones, i.e., the impact of beta-blockers in asthma patients that have been committed and rectified in the small-group remedial workshops. The program level assessment will be conducted every two years, where stakeholder input and outcome measures will be used to modify module selection and sequence. This cycle of continuous quality improvement will ensure that the technology is up to date on the accreditation standards and the evolving clinical practice.

Slide 12

• Budget and Resources

The approximate cost to apply the implementation of Sentinel U is the estimated three-year cost of a site-wide license for 500 students, costing $18,000 (3 years) plus faculty training costing 3,000, integration of technical support costing 2,000, and student orientation material costing 1,000. Loaner hardware and internet access to poor students will also be sought to be funded (4,000). Innovation in Teaching Grant will be sought in the institution, and the supplementary funds will be offered by the annual technology fund of the nursing program. The expenses are going to be billed with the help of the Office of Academic Affairs, where a budget review will be conducted quarterly to provide transparency and sustainability.

Slide 13

• Timeline

Administrative approval: The eight-month timeline of implementation between administrative approval in September 2025 and integration in April 2026. Vendor contracting (October 2025), faculty training (November-December 2025), student orientation (January 2026), pilot launch (Fundamentals of Nursing in February 2026), roll out to other courses (March 2026), and full deployment with evaluation (April 2026) are major milestones.

The possible barriers, such as faculty resistance, technical issues, or even student participation, will be eliminated by outreach in the first place, robust IT resources, and participation incentives, which is consistent with the work by Price and Regehr (2022). Constant reporting of the progress will be provided to the stakeholders to maintain interest and responsibility.

Slide 14

• Conclusion

The integration of Sentinel U online simulation in nursing education is one of the necessary progressive moves towards preparing the students to deal with the intricacies of modern healthcare. By sealing the esterification cracks in the clinical reasoning, physical evaluation, and drug usage, the technology supplements thoughts and decision-making dexterity in a scaled and convenient format.

Sentinel U, supported by evidence-based outcomes and a recorded implementation plan, can be considered an improvement to the existing high-fidelity simulations and a general addition to the educational experience. Its adoption will ensure that nurse graduates not only learn but are also guaranteed and competent to apply their knowledge to real clinical issues.

Slide 15

• Q&A

Q: How does Sentinel U compare to high-fidelity manikins in teaching physical assessment? 

Q: What if students lack reliable internet or devices? 

Q: Can Sentinel U be used for remediation? 

Q: How will faculty workload be managed with added simulation assignments?

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