Objectives: To describe how the processes of reflective thinking emerge in the nurse student in face of clinical situations in their clinical practicum. Method: Qualitative research, hermeneutical-phenomenological made in the subject Hospital Practicum II
during the clinical practicum to eleven nursing students at a Faculty of Nursing and a University Hospital of Barcelona (Spain), from February 2011 to February 2012. The data collection strategies were: participant observation, non-participant observation, informal discussion, in-depth interviews and written materials. For the data analysis, the method of constant comparisons by Strauss and Corbin was applied. Results: The
emerging qualitative axis was: Convergence of meanings between student and nurse regarding competent nursing care; and the resulting metacategory was: thoughtful student thinking with subsequent categories: perceptiveness and consciousness regarding the needs of others; epistemological curiosity; operative care; anticipation: reflective conversation in action; and finally reflexive imitation. Conclusions: Deliberative observation, operational attention, reflective conversation about action and in it, epistemological curiosity and reflective imitation, emerge gradually and in accordance to the quality of continuity and the student interaction with the different elements of
their clinical practicum; these reflective processes foster in the student the opportunity to reflect, interpret and give meaning to their own practice.