Students hone their skills in a virtual environment at the Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning.

Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning at EVMS

Developing new ways to use technology to teach common medical procedures and providing a safe environment for students to practice and perfect their techniques.

Explore Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning at EVMS

SCSIL Mission:  To advance professional excellence through simulation-based education, research, and innovation. 

Guiding principles: 

  • Promotion of patient safety and clinical excellence for training and assessment of healthcare professionals. 
  • Dedication to the development of simulation-based educational tools and programs to address core competencies and emerging trends across the primary and specialty domains of the healthcare system. 
  • Promotion of the use of simulation and advanced educational technologies as a competency assessment evaluation tool for a wide array of professionals. 
  • Conducting and reporting research on the development and use of simulation and advanced educational technologies. 
  • Provision of education and mentorship to future generations of educators and researchers interested in simulation-based teaching and assessment and advanced educational technologies. 
  • Promotion of simulation and advanced educational technologies in an effort to improve quality and safety in the health care system. 

Hands-on training for medical and health professionals

The Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning (SCSIL) allows students to get comfortable with communicating effectively with patients, responding to real-life situations in the field and performing clinical exams and surgical tasks.

State-of-the-art facilities

At SCSIL, students benefit from a 21st-century learning environment complete with an immersive virtual environment, 26 clinical exam rooms, an observation suite, six group skills rooms for staging emergency or operating rooms and more. 

Explore our facilities

Get certified in life support or become an instructor in one of our life support training courses.

Standardized Patients

EVMS was among the first medical schools in the nation to use Standardized Patients (SP) and has remained a leader in the field. Our SP program is one of the largest in the country, using more than 115 SPs ages 12 to 85+ who create a broad range of scenarios for both medical and non-medical training.

SPs provide a particularly invaluable training ground for medical and health professions students by giving them access to realistic patient interactions from the earliest days of their education.

We are always looking for new standardized patients. Interested in becoming a part of our team?

Manikin-based simulators

Our manikins are designed to assist learners in identifying and responding to conditions in a way that’s similar to how they would respond in a real-life situation.

We have pregnant manikins that can deliver babies; newborn, older infant and child manikins that are used to train pediatric-specific techniques; and standard adult manikins and advanced patient simulators that can display neurological and physiological symptoms. Manikins are relatively simple to operate and some feature cutting-edge technology such as automatic drug recognition.

Advancing innovations in education

Our faculty are leading, publishing and presenting studies that focus on the development and use of simulation in education. We also offer support for students and faculty investigating educational technologies, simulation devices and novel curricula.

Learners gather and discuss spinal cord injury in the Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning.