The identification of individualized patient care planning as a core element in clinical nursing training showed the need to evaluate how nursing students perceive themselves to be prepared for implementing the concept into patient care. Ninety‐five nursing students, with a mean age of 27 years, participated in this study at the end of their first theoretical block. Three questionnaires were used; 1) One questionnaire designed for the study concerning demographic data, attitudes and valuation of the theoretical education of the nursing process, 2) Rosenbaum's Self‐Control Schedule, and 3) Antonowsky's Sense of Coherence test. The results showed that the students' pre‐educational health care experience, which varied from one to twenty years, significantly (p<0.05) influenced the evaluation of their preparedness for clinical training. Attitudes towards nursing research and development of nursing care were negatively correlated (p<0.05) to their years of previous experience of health care and positively correlated to a more theoretical school background. The students' personal preparedness to develop independence varied greatly as measured by the Self‐Control Schedule and the Sense of Coherence test independently of age, work experience and earlier education. It was concluded that students might be favoured by individualized study planning as a parallel model to individualized care p