Submitted to the School of Nursing and HealthProfessions of Colorado Christian University Lakewood, Colorado in partialfulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE Abstract: Background: Given the need to ensure that programs are graduating nurses into the workforce who are competent and confident, the clinical learning environment must be of the highest quality, potentially determined by the student's satisfaction with their learning experience. The goal of this evidence-based practice project was to determine the differences in student satisfaction with the clinical learning experience, based on the type of instructor they had and the instructors affiliation with the host facility. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine the effect of different types of clinical instructors on the clinical experience. Methods: In this quality improvement project, a positive impact on pre-licensure nursing students' overall satisfaction with the clinical experience was expected when their rotation was facilitated by a clinical instructor who was more closely affiliated with the host facility. Results: No statistical significance was found in student satisfaction when measured between the groups using a one-way ANOVA. Clinical significance was determined with the finding that no matter what the instructor's level of affiliation with the host site, all students indicated being satisfied with their experience. There is significant value in this finding since the student experience was not negatively impacted by a difference in the affiliation of the instructor with the host site. Keywords: clinical scholar, clinical learning experience, student satisfaction.