[From giving care to thinking care or the difficulty of putting nursing practice "into words"]

My experience as a nurse and as a trainer brought me to wonder about the nursing practices in terms of Therapeutic Education of the Patient (TEP). Various studies, professional articles and a report of the Ministry of Health show a gap between an optimal educational approach experiences by nurses and the reality of their practice in TEP, namely a very injuctive and prescriptive practice, the ineffectiveness of which in therapeutic education with the patients is well known. Putting experience into words consists in transforming the events of the located action, in making its progress understandable so as to make the action aware and an object of reflection; to move then to a stage of elaboration of cognitive schemas which account for the understanding of encountered situations and undertaken professional practices. This necessary work of conceptualization allows some formalization which help to transpose experience to other situations and to act as a professional. On looking at this process of the experience elaborated by G. THE BOTERF, I shall try to show how nurses put their experience into words as part of TEP and to track down where their difficulties to think over a more efficient educational approach are situated. I shall rely on conversations carried on by nurses training as part of a master's thesis with nurses practising TEP.