Both teachers and students have found it diffïcult to contend with the difficulties inherent to formative evaluation in a clinical nursing care environment. The introduction of the Nursing Care Program has raised new expectations in the area of formative evaluation as well as many questions concerning the efficiency of its application. This qualitative research analyses the representations of teaching staff concerning the use of formative evaluation in a clinical environment. The analysis demonstrates that a gap exists between the teachers' vision of the concept of formative evaluation and the evaluation approach which they affirm using in practice. The theorical perspective of the paradigms of categorisation, integration and transformation guides the discussion of the research results.