Abstract T his study explored the experience of student nurses regarding their frst patient death during clinical duty. A qualitative research design using the phenomenological approach was employed. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 11 purposively selected nursing students. Colaizzi’s method was used for analysis. Themes from the transcribed data were generated. The data was validated with the participants’ clinical instructors and block mates. The three domains that emerged from this study are: personal experiences, coping mechanisms, and perception towards the nursing profession. Personal experience had three sub-themes: intrapersonal experience, interpersonal experience, and impact of death. Coping mechanisms introduced two sub-themes: emotion-focused and problem-focused coping mechanisms. Two emergent themes arose from perception towards nursing profession: positive and negative. This study underscores the importance of placements and programs in the clinical setting that support and strengthen the coping mechanisms of nursing students. Keywords: frst patient death experience, clinical duty, Colaizzi’s method STUDENT NURSES’ FIRST PATIENT DEATH EXPERIENCE IN THE CLINICAL DUTY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY Mae Beth Fajilan, Magdy Maher, Arjean Pinuela, Rona Beth Saban Death is perhaps the greatest loss an individual can experience. It is an inevitable end to human life. Nurses play an important role in helping a dying patient end their life with dignity. It is the nurses’ responsibility to establish meaningful relations with patients at the end of life (Browall, Melin-Johansoson, Strang, Danielson, & Henoch, 2010). Nurses who are already working may have already de- veloped coping mechanisms and ways that help them deal with death cases. As for the nursing students who monitor and pro- vide care to the dying patient, the phenomena can be emotion- ally demanding and can have an impact on their practice. Stud- ies have demonstrated that nursing students have diffculties in dealing with death (Parry, 2011; Edo-Gual, Tomas-sabado, Bardallo-Porras, & Monforte-Royo, 2014; Strang, Bergh, & EK, 2014) and feel emotionally unprepared to care for dying patients (White, Coyne, & Pattel, 2011). Parry (2011) as cited in Heise and Gilpin (2016) con- frmed that nursing students experience considerable anxiety, including feelings of being unprepared for the death of a patient. Students described not knowing how to reconcile their feelings with how they believed they were expected to react (Gerow et al., 2010), and they reported feeling inadequately unprepared for the situation (Parry, 2011). Ek et al. (2014) cited studies from Deffner and Bell (2005) and Cooper and Barnett (2005) stat- ing that nursing students can feel helpless, guilty, and distressed while caring for dying patients. Such emotional reactions limit the professional ability of nursing students to care for dying pa- tients and make it diffcult for the students to comprehend the emotional responses of the patients and their families. In addi- tion, previous research indicates that nursing students have little support from clinical instructors at the time of a patient’s death and later (Huang, Chang, Sun, & Ma, 2010). Assisting student nurses to develop coping skills with regard to the death of patients is important, as student nurses may not be able to distance themselves from getting attached to the patient within the short period of care. While nursing stu- dents assist families in the grieving process, they seldom learn how to deal with their own feelings of sadness or loss. However, current researches that talk about how student nurses cope with a patient’s death are scarce and mostly anecdotal. This study was conducted to address the scarcity of the literature on the topic of coping amongst nursing students. Most current studies focus on staff nurses; however, student nurses who are likely to experience patient death also need guidance to cope with the phenomena. This study seeks to address that dearth by examining the structure of coping from the nursing students’ point of view regarding their frst experience of pa- tient’s death during the clinical duty. Objectives The objectives of the study were to explore the dif- ferent experiences of nursing students regarding their patients’ death, identify their coping strategies, and evaluate the impact of the experience on their views of the nursing profession. METHODOLOGY A qualitative phenomenological approach was adapted in this study. The researchers used a purposive sampling method to recruit 11 participants using the following criteria: (1) have experienced the death of a patient frst-hand, (2) are currently second to fourth year nursing students, (3) are 18 years old and above, and (4) can properly understand what is being asked of them and can articulate themselves in a way that can be clearly understood.