The 6th symposium of the SCTO was held on 17 June 2015 in St.Gallen. This year’s event was dedicated to the theme “Clinical / nursing / research – a convergence of two disciplines” and was jointly organised with the Kantonsspital St.Gallen. Leading experts and stakeholders discussed the (not yet) exploited interdisciplinary potential of medical and nursing clinical research. After analysing the interfaces of the two disciplines, ongoing interdisciplinary and multinational research projects were presented and the current state of clinical nursing research in Switzerland discussed.