Preparing, organizing and planning care for patients is challenging for nursing students as they must learn to link theory to practice. Concept mapping has been suggested as an effective strategy to facilitate meaningful learning and promote critical thinking among nursing students (Baugh & Mellott, 1998; Schuster, 2003). Utilization of concept maps is relatively new in its application to the clinical realm. A pilot project was implemented to evaluate the perceived effectiveness and feasibility of the use of concept maps in a clinical setting. Concept maps were used by 4 groups of third year students (n = 32) on a weekly basis to plan care for 1-2 assigned patients for 2, 12-week rotations on a Pediatric medical/surgical floor. Students completed simple short answer questions at the end of their rotation, which addressed student's thoughts on utilization, effect on clinical reasoning and ability to link lab values, medications, pathophysiology and patient issues. Student's reported that they enjoyed using concept maps, it allowed them to visualize key connections between identified patient issues, stay organized, and made preparations less time consuming. Study findings will be described as continued use of concept maps are recommended. Implications for curriculum planning as well as further research will be discussed. (Contains 2 figures.)