The aim of the study was to generate a theoretical model of what nursing students experience in their first professional encounter with people having mental disorders. Data was collected by interviewing 11 nursing students, selected by strategic sampling. Grounded theory analysis was chosen for the study. Findings showed that the students' personal qualities and the patients' behaviour affected the students' experience. When nursing students who had their own needs in focus met patients who rejected them, they felt helpless, and patients wishing to establish a relationship with them confirmed their positive or negative expectations. Nursing students who were focused on patients' needs met the patient as a unique person and felt confident despite being rejected by the patient, as well as proud when the patients wished to establish a relationship with them. Clinical university teachers can use the findings to gain knowledge about how each student feels as well as to guide them through their psychiatric training. The sample is small and further research is needed to generalize the findings of this study and to explore how nursing students, specialist psychiatric nurses and nurses in other disciplines experience the encounter with patients as well as how patients describe encounters with caregivers.