The nurse students have 8 weeks in practice in Mental Health Care in the community mental health care and district psychiatric centres (DPS). The course objectives are common for the nurse students. In this learning period in practice they are followed up by nurses in practice. The student, nurse and the teacher meet each other three times during the practice period.

The main question for this study was: Did the nurse students experience the possibility of reaching the intended learning outcomes in the Mental Health field course (12 credits)?

Was to gain knowledge about the intended learning outcomes nurse students could reach in practice.

An explorative study design was chosen for the pilot study. The data came from 26 students who were secondary years nurse students.

The result shows that of 16 learning outcomes, 5 differed; Knowledge in mental health nursing, Care Management, Treatment, The legal aspects of Mental Health Care, and Administration of drugs. The students experienced that they could not fully reach the learning outcomes. The findings are discussed based upon theory in communication, caring and learning.

Based on this result, we need to reconsider some aspects of the role of the faculty members and the role of the clinical preceptors in this course.