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Basic nursing education is governed by individual state rules and regulations lacking in uniformity across the United States and based on unstated and perhaps mistaken assumptions. At the same time, there is increasing evidence of problems and difficulties with the current traditional model of nursing education. Before proposing changes in said model, the authors chose to examine what it is that a nursing student does in a clinical area. The perspective of activities and interactions was chosen to illustrate, through a nonparticipant observation study, the patterns and utilization of time during a scheduled clinical experience for baccalaureate nursing students. The goal of the study was to determine who, other than the client/patient, influences the student learning at the clinical site and how learning time is spent. Two schools (one private and one public) and nine clinical sites with 37 observations were used to collect the data for this study. Findings are best summarized in four (overlapping) categories of school time, registered nurse (RN) staff time, hospital staff time, and supervised time. School time, or time spent interacting with the instructor, another student, and/or the student on his/her own in the practice setting (time exclusive of staff input) constituted 84 per cent of all time. RN staff time that was time spent with either the primary nurse or other RNs on the unit used 10 per cent of the student time, Fourteen per cent of student time was spent in hospital staff time, which includes interactions with any nursing staff or other hospital personnel.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)