Background: Nursing student's experiences of their clinical environment provide greater insight in developing an effective clinical teaching strategy for nursing education. This is because experience in this field is very important especially in novice students . The main objective of this study was to identify and describe the first experience of nursing students on their clinical learning environment.

Materials and Methods: A phenomenological approach was used for this study. Ten students were interviewed about their first experience in clinical learning environment. Using Van Manen’s phenomenology, the researchers analyzed the verbatim transcript, narrative notes, and the focus group data.

Results: Six themes (Broken presupposition Accommodation Attraction in setting Find identity Patient in center and Clinical Teaching/learning issues) emerged by which the phenomenon of clinical learning environment experience could be illustrated. Eighteen subthemes expanded and clarified the meaning of these themes.

Conclusion: Although the students in the first exposure felt a new identification they involved in a confusion between realities and supposition and negative feelings. However they adapted with the new situation and accepted their role in helping the clients.