Healthcare is demanding its healthcare workers to communicate and collaborate in a team environment. The Institute of Medicine has identified teamwork and collaboration as vital qualities for nurses to learn in the nursing curriculum. Yet, nursing education has been unsuccessful in assuring that its graduates are as prepared with these attributes as they should be. The participation in collegiate extracurricular activities has been shown to foster leadership, communication skills, self-efficacy and persistence to stay in college, yet there is very little research on the nursing student who participates in college activities. There is also a plethora of studies on student athletes and the qualities that are learned from this experience, yet again, no nursing students are mentioned in these studies. This study used a phenomenological design to illuminate the experiences of having dual collegiate roles; that of the student nurse and the student athlete. Thirteen practicing nurses who all played an NCAA sanctioned sport during college were interviewed about their collegiate experience. Each collegiate role has various challenges and coordinating the dual roles was not easy, yet the nurses shared very poignant stories of how and why these roles enhanced the other. The five essential themes that shed light on the dual role of these nurses were: 1) Athletic Identity, 2) Perseverance, 3) Support, 4) Acceptance and Belonging and 5) Transitioning the Sports Mentality into Nursing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]