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The concept of person-centred care has gained international recognition over the last decade and forms one of the key concepts of our Nursing Quality Improvement Curricular Framework.

This study aimed to investigate nursing students' learning about person-centred care during the first-year of their programme.

Qualitative thematic analysis of a section of placement learning documents from two consecutive cohorts of students from all fields of nursing (n = 405), supplemented by three focus group discussions.

Two conceptual categories of student approaches to learning emerged. Firstly, ‘stepping back’, or learning from a distance about how nurses provide care, often through reading case notes and care plans; second, ‘stepping in’, learning about the patient as a person by direct interaction with service users. Evidence of reflection on the patient's experience of care was …