Objectives: To determine the features and the importance of formal education of nurses and to determine whether there are any differences in goal orientations of learning among respondents. Participants and methods: A cross - sectional survey has been carried out. First and second - year students of Nursing Studies in Čakovec (graduate programme) took part in the survey. 70 respondents were included. The instrument used in the survey was an anonymous questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first part is related to demographic features and consists of eight questions. The second part has to do with goal orientations of students and contains fifteen statements in the form of Likert scale, divided into three domains: orientation to learning, performance and avoiding effort. All three are defined by ranging answers on a scale from 1 to 5. Results: The scale of orientation to learning implies that 42 (60%) respondents are very satisfied when they learn something new. According to the scale of orientation to performance, the majority of respondents, 45 (64%) of them, agree or totally agree with the statement that they are very satisfied when they can demonstrate what they have learned to others. When it comes to the scale of orientation to avoiding effort, 36 (51%) respondents do not agree or totally do not agree with the statement that they do not want to do any more than they have to. Conclusion: There is no statistically significant difference among respondents regarding the characteristics and importance of formal education. As far as goal orientations are concerned, two groups of students have been detected - those who are learning and performance oriented and those who are not oriented to avoiding effort.