RESEARCH ARTI CLE PRACTI CAL LEARNI NG AND THEORY-PRACTI CE GAP AS PERCEI VED BY NURSING STUDENTS *Manal Hamed Mahmoud Lecturer of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Benha University, Egypt ARTI CLE INFO ABST RACT Background: Practical learning is one of the important concerns that helps the awareness of nursing students’ practice in a clinical setting and it is important to link theoretical knowledge to practical skills. Nursing educators and clinical preceptors must display the knowledge and skills required to bridge the theory practice-gap. Aim: This study aimed to explore the perception of nursing students related to their practical learning and theory-practice gap. Methods: Research design: An explorative-descriptive design used in this study to explore and describe the perception of nursing students to their practical learning and theory-practice gap. A convenient sample of 61 nursing students engaged in this study. Study tool: The utilized questionnaire consisted of five sections: included the socio-demographic data; responses on practical learning; responses on learning strategies preferences; responses on assessment and responses on theory-practice gap. Results: Majority of nursing students (88.5%) indicated that they had inadequate supervision from clinical preceptors, insufficiently prepared simulation laboratory (100%) and only 50.8% of them had opportunity to practice skills during simulation sessions. Majority of respondents (67.2%) showed that summative assessment conducted at the end of the course, but they not prepared for examination (57.4%).The gap between the theoretical knowledge and the actual clinical procedures in the wards perceived by respondents (54.1%). Conclusion and Recommendations: Nursing education must reexamine current methods to practical learning and seek methods to better prepare future nurses. Conducting continuing education for the faculty in principles of teaching and learning to enhance their teaching behavior and interpersonal skills. Copyright © 2014 Manal Hamed Mahmoud, This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. INTRODUCTION Nursing graduates expected to provide compassionate, safe, and effective care in multiple settings while keeping abreast of rapid advances in healthcare (Benner et al., 2010). Nurses are accountable for delivering high quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care to diverse populations of all ages (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010). Nursing care is determined by the way nurses use knowledge and skills to appreciate the uniqueness of the person they are caring for (Warelow et al., 2008). Learning and training is a part of the bachelor degree in nursing, although unanswered questions remain as to how students learn practical skills (Strand et al., 2009). Clinical learning is one of the important ways of enhancing nursing students’ function in a clinical setting and affecting the development of nursing profession. In addition, clinical learning is one of the major parts of nursing in the world (Papp et al., 2003; Andrews & Roberts, 2003).The ability to apply knowledge to practice is fundamental in creating competent and highly skilled practitioners. Nurses *Corresponding author: Manal Hamed Mahmoud, Lecturer of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Benha University, Egypt. bring a spectrum of experiences and qualities to training which include diverse learning styles (Frankel, 2009). The relationship between theory and clinical practice, both internationally and nationally, has always been a concern in nursing education. Numerous studies have pointed out the discrepancies between theory and practice (Ehrenberg & Häggblom, 2007). Nurses use a wide range of theoretical and practical knowledge in their work. In recent years, they have needed a considerable amount of new knowledge to provide the appropriate level of care for patients. Their knowledge may be acquired by different means - some is ‘hidden’ in practice, but from whatever source it originates, it should be evaluated, and hopefully that which is without merit will be discarded. The key to success in such activity is to question beliefs from all sources (Hall, 2005). The literature describes the influence of factors such as role models, the sequence in which theory and practice are organized, the learning environment as well as teaching and learning strategies, while inadequate theory and practice integration still occurs; this results in the theory– practice gap (Cathrina de Swardt et al., 2012). Mabuda, et al. (2008) confirm the theory–practice gap as being a hindrance in student nurses’ learning process. Inadequate theory–practice integration reflected in areas such as medication errors and I SSN: 0975 -833X Available online at http://www.journalcra.com International Journal of Current Research Vol. 6, Issue, 02, pp.5083-5093, February, 2014 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT RESEARCH Article History: Received 27 th November, 2013 Received in revised form 14 th December, 2013 Accepted 19 th January, 2014 Published online 21 st February, 2014 Key words: Practical learning, Theory-practice gap, Nursing educator, Clinical preceptor.