Skills Labs, Facilities & Resources
At Sentara College of Health Sciences, you will gain the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to lay a solid foundation for employment and personal growth. Most importantly, you will gain the confidence and high level of clinical expertise you need to begin caring for patients after you graduate.
Hands-on clinical opportunities make Sentara College one of the top healthcare schools in the region. Through extensive clinical training in a wide variety of facilities that include our skills labs and simulation center, you will thrive in your educational environment. You will have the opportunity to become an outstanding clinical professional through an exceptional educational experience.
Skills Labs
- Skills labs will help to prepare you for your clinical profession. In the skills labs, Sentara College creates an environment similar to the facilities where clinicals are completed. You will learn in several interactive skills labs with simulated patient rooms. These labs will enable you to practice many advanced skills before you work with real-life patients.
- The College offers a variety of classrooms and skills laboratories for simulated clinical or client care activities and conference areas to meet educational needs.
- The Cardiovascular Technology Program has a lab, complete with equipment and supplies, for practicing invasive and hemodynamic monitoring and cardiac or vascular ultrasound. You will use simulation in your cardiovascular labs.
- The Surgical Technology Program has a simulated operating room lab, complete with prep area, trays, and selected equipment where students practice.
- The Nursing Program and Patient Care Technician Program use skills labs with simulated client care beds for practice and demonstration of competency in nursing skills. Bedside computers and audio/visual equipment aid students in practice. You will also use the state-of-the-art Sentara Simulation Center.
- The Medical Assistant Program has a dedicated skills lab and classroom space specially designed for the needs of their program
- Skills labs are also available at the Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton.
Facilities
As a student at Sentara College of Health Sciences, you will have the opportunity to take full advantage of our partnership with Sentara Healthcare and all of the exceptional clinical facilities that are available to you. Extensive and exceptional hands-on training in these facilities will set you apart.
As a student at Sentara College, you may have the opportunity to engage in clinical rotations in selected departments or units within acute care hospitals. This includes emergency rooms, cardiac catheterization labs, cardiac diagnostic units, operating rooms, and various other critical care areas. Sentara Healthcare hospitals that host student clinical experiences include:
- Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
- Sentara Heart Hospital
- Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital
- Sentara Bayside Hospital
- Sentara Leigh Hospital
- Sentara CarePlex Hospital
- Sentara Obici Hospital
- Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center
Other Sentara Facilities include outpatient and diagnostic centers, physician practices, urgent care centers, nursing and assisted living centers, adult day care centers, and a home healthcare agency.
Professional partnerships or affiliations exist with other healthcare organizations, such as Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center.
Educational Resources
The Learning Resource Center (LRC) is equipped with computers, a copier/printer, and is adjacent to the library. The Sentara Health Library is located at Sentara College of Health Sciences. You have access to every journal, database, and textbook you need, thanks to the Sentara Health Library. The library houses more than 4,000 books and 200 print journals, as well as providing access to more than 140,000 full-text online databases and other resources. We encourage you to visit and discover all of the references available to you.