ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Finding appropriate community clinical placements has been challenging in recent years, most especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2020-2021 semesters, a university in the province of Alberta, Canada chose to use the community health virtual simulation program, Sentinel City®3.1, to provide clinical placements for three groups of undergraduate students. This expository paper, co-authored by students and faculty, sought to further explore how virtual simulation can be used to best support student learning by identifying practices that students find most helpful. METHOD: Jeffries' (2005) simulation framework was used to guide a quality improvement analysis which explored feedback received from 16 students regarding the use of Sentinel City®3.1 as a clinical placement, with additional contributions from the student co-authors. RESULTS: Students felt Sentinel City®3.1 was an effective tool to learn community and population health concepts, however, all students indicated that they would have preferred more opportunities to work with real communities. CONCLUSION: Virtual simulation programs like Sentinel City®3.1 might be best as a learning supplement rather than as students' sole clinical placement experience.