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patients responses. The content of the Health Buddy® consists of daily dialogues about symptoms, knowledge and behaviour related to their disease, allowing early notification and correction. Included in this pretest-posttest design were 108 patients with heart failure NYHA II, III and IV from three institutions and the follow-up period was 6 months.Results: Mean age was 74.6 years, 55% were men and mean duration of HF was 34 months. Compliance with daily answering the dialogues was high: 85%. Reasons for drop out were: mortality (12), overload (8), demotivation (2), problems with installation (3) unknown (2). Patients were more compliant regarding appointments with care providers (CP) and advices related to diet, activity, smoking and use of alcohol. Disease specific knowledge increased significantly. Hospital admissions decreased by 30%, with unchanged admission duration and amount of contacts with care providers.

The examination situation was perceived as a stressful situation since it was difficult to prepare and because there were high expectations on their knowledge including comprehension, application as well as analysis of the patient situation. Since the form of the examination was new to the students they expressed an insecurity regarding the criteria and demands to pass the exam. The students wanted to have more precise and detailed information regarding these issues. However, they also expressed that the insecurity decreased when the examination came closer and they received ongoing information. Conclusion: A clinical examination in nursing might stimulate the students in their clinical studies and improve the integration of theoretical and practical nursing skills in the learning process.