The ability to assess individual patients' physical and emotional needs was used as one foundation for evaluation of clinical competence for Swedish student nurses. Each of the randomly sampled 48 student nurses and their corresponding supervisors (48 nurses) assessed the perceived needs of a patient they both knew well by separately answering a questionnaire concerning basic physical and emotional needs. Simultaneously the selected patients (n = 48) were interviewed about their perceived needs. Student nurses' and nurses' assessments were compared with the individual patient's opinion. Both the students' and the nurses' assessments showed close similarities with the patients' own estimations, although certain under- and overestimations for both physical and emotional needs were found, with a predominance of overestimation of emotional needs. Student nurses and nurses also showed uncertainty in some of their assessments, mainly concerning emotional needs. Their assessments were closer than student nurses/patients or nurses/patients, and also closer for physical than for emotional needs. The conformity in student nurses' and their supervisors' assessments might be understood as the supervisors' influence as role models. Attention should be paid both in nursing education and in clinical practice to the need for individualization of patient care.