The purpose of this study was to determine first-year nursing students' perceptions of knowledge and difficulties in learning human anatomy and physiology that is required to learn nursing skills to develop self-learning materials. Subjects were 38 first-year students of "A" nursing college. This survey was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire. Results were as follows; 27 out of 54 items were reported as "good understanding," and "some understanding" by over 50 percent of participants. These items revealed ability to identify the site of bodily organs, and to understand the mechanisms of life. However, 13 items, including complicated mechanisms, were difficult to understand and were hard to detect location. These students used learning skills such as taking notes, drawing pictures, and correlation to other subjects. These results suggest that self-learning materials include: (1) a relation between nursing skills, and learning human anatomy and physiology using clinical cases ; (2) technical terms should be explained; (3) visual aids help to eliminate difficulties with self learning of human anatomy and physiology; (4) if students take an interest in human anatomy and physiology they do better understanding of mechanisms and diseases; and (5) students can use various learning strategies.