BACKGROUND: User participation is an important aspect of nursing, especially within a rehabilitation setting where the emphasis is on the patient's ability to become as independent as possible. It is also decreed by law that students should learn about user participation. Furthermore, to achieve good nursing skills it is important for the students to understand "the what" and to reflect on "the how" regarding user participation.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to explore how students learn to apply user participation in a context of rehabilitation.

DESIGN AND METHOD: The design of the study is qualitative. Content analysis was adopted, and both inductive and deductive approaches were used. The informants were nursing students in the second and third years of the bachelor's degree at a university in Norway. Most of the students were in community health services, but some of them performed their internship at hospitals. Two focus groups with 11 students were conducted. In addition, the data also consist of 28 written reflections and 31 written work requirements in relation to rehabilitation. The students from the focus groups and the written work requirement were in practice in community health services. In the written reflections it was 14 students who had their internship at hospital and 14 students in community health services.

RESULTS: The main categories of the study are barriers to learning, dialogue as a tool and reflection as essential. The students learn to use check lists and focus on organizational planning, which might be a barrier to learning. Dialogue is important to improve the students' learning. Students need to reflect on user participation together with their supervisor to learn to be confident in encountering users, which indicates that reflection is essential.

CONCLUSION: The major findings indicate that students lack competence or user participation and that their supervisors seldom talk about it with them. Also, it should be compulsory reflection notes about user participation in the student's internships. Teachers at universities must inform supervisors and develop courses about mentorship and user participation. This may be a step forward to overcome theory-practice gap.