This study explores male nursing students’ experiences with returning to school after military service.

Data were collected from 18 male nursing students who returned from military service between 2015 and 2017 through focus group interviews. The collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi's method.

From the 325 meanings obtained from the study participants, 18 themes and 5 theme clusters were identified. The 5 theme clusters were found to be “way one has to go because he is a man,” “endurance despite hard work,” “gazing from the highland,” “different feeling of the same place,” and “expectation and desire.”

Male nursing students’ experiences in the army had continuous meaning in the adaptive process of them leaving from and return to the university. Therefore, interest and effort within nursing schools and universities are needed so that the military experience can be beneficial to the university life, including the male students’ departure and return.