Just out of curiosity...has anyone created a nursing home using the University dorm system? I think it would be pretty fun.

I have created nursing homes, however not witht he uni dorm door. I think the dorm door works in non-uni hoods though. There's no reason you couldn't try it. The only thing I don't think it will do is auto-populate un-used rooms with dormies or 'elderlies' in this case.

The retirement home I have uploaded here uses the uni doors. It's still a residential lot though.

Supposedly, the Myne Door does allow for Sims in any neighborhood, not just University ones, to claim a room as "theirs," though I can't say I've tested this myself...

And as far as nursing homes go, plenty of players have either apartments (for elders who still want the privacy of their own household) or residential lots (for playing the last days of a lot of elderly Sims all at once) that are set up as assisted care centers, monasteries, convents, senior centers, and the like... it definitely works.

Yes it works in exactly the same manner. Their portrait appears and they can lock and unlock their door. As I said, I uploaded a retirement home with that set up-I play it in my large integrated hood.

Does the game "spawn" or control their extra residents, or do you control the entire lot?

The game doesn't spawn anything, I'm not sure what you mean? It's just a residential lot.

What I did was after moving in my two playable old people in was set the visitor controller so only old townies would come walking by and I grabbed 5 more as the came and moved them in with the teleporter cat. I used a downloaded Cassandra Goth as my care taker. I controlled them all but if I had not wanted to I could have made them non selectable, but it wasn't meant to be an asylum challenge just an old folks home. There is no special magic in myne doors, it just means your playable sims can claim and lock a door, that's all. The only time these doors do something extra is when the lot is zoned a dorm. You can certainly play a dorm in the main hood with YA, but that uses Lions Gold Record.