This is a prospective study on perceptions of actual and preferred hospital clinical learning environment of student nurses and midwives in Imo state university, Owerri. The study was guided by four objectives and four research questions. This research specifically assessed the student nurses view of their actual and preferred hospital CLE, determine if differences exist in student nurses view of their actual and preferred hospital CLE, establish the association between the actual and preferred hospital CLE and identify factors that influence student nurses opinion of their hospital CLE. The researcher reviewed and summarized related literatures in the study. The research design adopted was descriptive research design. The target population was 254 nursing and midwifery students in fourth and fifth year in the department of nursing science, Orlu campus. The sample size of 152 nursing students was purposively chosen for the study. Questionnaire was used as instrument of data collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and mean were presented using tables for easy interpretation. The findings revealed that there is significant difference in the student nurses and midwives’ views of their actual and preferred hospital clinical learning environments (>2.50) in all the groups except personalization (<2.50). This implies that the student nurses’ view of the preferred hospital clinical learning environment is always higher than their view of the actual hospital clinical learning environment. They were agree to be the factors that influence student nurses’ opinion of their actual and preferred hospital clinical hospital environment (mean scores >2.50); except age of student (mean scores <2.50) and gender of student (mean scores >2.50). The importance of helping students feel valued and interpersonal relationships in the clinical area need to be highlighted in the preceptor preparation programmes. Recommendations ...