Clinical experience has been an important part of nursing education since the time of Nightingale. Individuals who carried out functions recognized as nursing sought to impart their knowledge and skills to those who would be added to their ranks. Today the National League for Nursing continues to support the value of clinical education in the development of nursing practitioners. For this reason, this study sought to identify what the essences of clinical experience were for nursing students and clinical educators. Although much information is available on the components of the experience, this researcher believed that there was more to the clinical experience phenomenon. The "whole" of the clinical experience was sought rather than the "parts".

Ten clinical faculty and ten junior level nursing students participated in the explication of the lived experience of clinical. All participants were provided with an opening statement and were asked to describe their perception of the clinical experience. Through phenomenological analysis of the transcripts from these interviews, the researcher developed descriptions of the clinical experience phenomenon from the perspective of the clinical nurse faculty and the junior level nursing students.

Students' commentaries were permeated with descriptions of faculty, staff, patient relationships and feelings related to their role as a student. Faculty verbalized themes reflecting their awareness of responsibility and necessity of acting out a number of different roles.

After the descriptions were written, based on the themes explicated by students and faculty, their descriptions were validated by returning to the participants and asking them if the descriptions as written represented the essences of the experience for them. All participants contacted agreed that the descriptions were accurate.

It is hoped that through explication of the clinical experience by those who live it we, in nursing, will come to know what the experience is about. It is important that we understand each others' awareness so that we have a better understanding of ourselves if the provision of holistic care is what we intend to facilitate.