Sentry at NKU: tracking the items your clinicals depend on

Sentry, run as SentryMD, is where NKU graduate nursing students keep proof of the health and certification items that clinical work depends on. NKU names it together with PreCheck, and the Contracts & Compliance team lists PreCheck/Sentry among the questions it helps students with.

The system matters to NKU's placement staff as well as to you. A Clinical Placement Specialist role NKU posted in June 2026 pairs that job with the Student Placement Coordinator on student compliance and names Sentry and PreCheck as the tools, next to term-by-term tracking of placement needs by specialty and location.

For you, the practical point is that the same Sentry record is looked at again on every request. Keeping it tidy from the first upload, with each document clearly labeled and dated, saves time at every later review.

No public NKU page spells out which immunizations, screenings or certifications online MSN students upload. Advising points to one place, the "General Clinical Information" part of the shell for your concentration, while the MSN Clinical Information Canvas carries clinical deadlines and preceptor requirements. Treat those two places as the authoritative list.

Lists from other programs describe other students. NKU's 2024-25 undergraduate catalog, for example, asks campus BSN students for CPR for Health Providers and for immunization records submitted together, but that wording covers pre-licensure students, not the online MSN. If you have not joined your shells yet, the Canvas clinical shells guide shows where each one sits.

1. Open your Canvas listOpen General Clinical Information in the shell for your concentration and note every item, including any that must be renewed.
2. Gather the documentsCollect records, results and certification cards. Students near Highland Heights can use NKU's Student Health Clinic, which lists immunizations, venipuncture for titers and TB skin testing among its nurse services.
3. Upload through the route NKU namesUse the upload method given in your Canvas instructions. Send complete documents with dates and signatures visible, one requirement per file where you can.
4. Clear any questions earlyIf an item is flagged, ask the Contracts & Compliance contact for your track, the team that handles PreCheck/Sentry questions.
5. Recheck before each requestBefore every Medatrax self-placement request, confirm nothing will lapse before the final day of that 7-week session.

The clearest public description comes from a College of Health & Human Services page that was live in May 2025. It told clinical students to submit vaccination proof through PreCheck via SentryMD, either by email to a SentryMD inbox or through a secure student uploader.

That page has since been removed, and NKU has not posted a replacement in public. The mechanics may have changed, so follow the route in your current Canvas instructions rather than an old bookmark.

The same 2025 page said students in clinicals, practicums, externships or job shadows had to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, because local health partners' mandates applied to students. Exemptions depended on what each health system allowed, exempt students might face weekly testing at their own expense, and NKU said it had no alternative clinical experiences for unvaccinated students.

No current NKU page restates the rule, so whether it applies in 2026 cannot be confirmed from public sources. Because the original requirement followed health systems' own mandates, ask both your track's Contracts & Compliance contact and your clinical site.

Sentry holds compliance documents and nothing else. Self-placement requests, time logs and preceptor evaluations all run through Medatrax, and your preceptor verifies logged hours there each week; the hour log guide covers that side.

The two meet at Contracts & Compliance, which reviews the compliance portion of each Medatrax request. For everything else NKU checks before a rotation, from your RN license to the site's affiliation agreement, see the clinical compliance overview.

Clinical sites differ in what they ask of students on top of NKU's list. When a preceptor agrees to take you, we find out what that site's onboarding involves and send it to you with the session dates, so your Sentry record and the site's paperwork are ready at the same time.

In parallel, a placement advisor prepares the preceptor's half of the request so it reaches Contracts & Compliance complete. Everything runs on NKU's session calendar. See how it works, then use the form below to begin.