Background: During clinical practice, students are in the high-risk group for occupational needle stick/sharp piercing injuries due to limited clinical experience, inadequate attention to personal safety, and lack of knowledge. Materials and Methods: In the first part of the qualitative study, Demographic Information Form was used to collect demographic data of the students and in the second part, fishbone diagram was used to determine the root causes of sharps injuries. Results: The mean age of the participants was 22.30±0.702 years, 80% were female and 20% were male. Of the students, 76.7% were nursing students and 23.3% were midwifery students, and all of them were 4th year vocational education students. 46.7% of the participants practiced in internal units, 30% practiced in surgical units and 23.3% in intensive care unit. It was determined 86.7% of the participants had experienced a sharps injury once. In the root cause analysis of students’ sharps injuries according to the fishbone method, four main headings were identified: healthcare workers, material, environment and method. Conclusions: When the root causes were analyzed, it was found that all of the sharps injuries were preventable. With an effective intervention for these causes, it is expected that the material and moral damages that may be experienced will be minimized.