Creation of new knowledge is mainly accomplished by students themselves. The Case Method uses cases from real life to inspire students to actively seek knowledge, which they discuss in structured seminars in which the teacher plays an active role. The effectiveness of case-based learning in health professional education has recently been positive evaluated in a systematic review. With the aim to understand more about how students learn, focusing on case seminars, we asked nursing students about their learning experiences.

Sixty nine students, who had been participating in case seminars in cardiology during their second year of a Swedish three-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme, gave us their written narratives and data were analysed with the method content analysis.

The results of the analysis of the students’ learning experiences will be presented in detail and include descriptions of learning through discussions, an interest in other students’ solutions to problems and the importance of confirming one’s own knowledge. Also the structure, involving pre-prepared cases and writing on the white board and supervision in an open atmosphere seem to enable the learning and everyone to participate. A theme of how the Case Method opens doors to deeper understanding was identified as a main thread running through the codes and categories. To support our analyses we presented the results to the students one year later, asking for their views. All students present (62/69) recognized our descriptions of learning in case seminars to a great or very great degree.

Our conclusion is that the Case Method seems to involve nursing students in a way that deepens their understanding and we believe our findings will be of interest to other teachers. The study’s strengths and weaknesses and the possibilities of case seminars in nursing education are topics I look forward to discuss with my colleges at the Nordic Forum for Nurse Educators 2013.