The laboratory guided practice approach has been found an effective strategy for teaching nursing skills to large numbers of students. It provides flexibility in meeting individualized needs and serves to decrease stress levels of both students and faculty. At the School of Nursing, University of N.C. at Chapel Hill, it has served to establish more uniform clinical expectations of students and greater correlation between skills level and clinical site placement, as well as integration of skill components into clinical courses. These outcomes and the positive evaluations discussed above help to validate this strategy as a practical and effective way to approach the teaching of clinical nursing skills.