Abstract
The article describes an analysis inspired by the text theory of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. The topic of the study is the evaluation process in nursing education. The investigation deals with written narratives in which clinical instructors describe their experiences when giving the students a failing grade for their clinical course. Based on both a hermeneutical-phenomenological and a structural analysis these texts are reshaped into new stories.
The new stories show that the instructors' experiences when making the decision can be put in a continuum between, on the one hand, the feeling of having a genuine sense of justice, and on the other, the feeling of themselves being victimized. Daring to fail the student is depended on the clinical instructors having a genuine commitment to nursing and having support from their colleagues.
