Objective To explore the experience of recessive truancy among academical warned undergraduate nursing students. Methods The purposive sampling was used to select 15 students for semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed by Colaizzi’s 7-step method. Results The experience of recessive truancy were summarized into three themes and eight sub-themes，including “I also want to listen carefully”：active presence and passive departure（cognitive awakening，helpless out）；“I will not listen to all of them”：selective persistence and dissociation （interest first，classroom orientation，utilitarian intention）；“I can listen to it or not”：inner sense of meaninglessness and external sense of nothingness（no intention to learn，addicted to virtuality，drift along）. Conclusion From the teacher’s perspective，dull teaching and inadequate classroom management suggest that teachers should improve teaching quality and classroom management. The lack of care and support for students also reveals that teachers should satisfy students’ developmental needs. From the students’ perspective，their wrong learning values should be reshaped，while their lack of motivation and unclear goals also show that they should enhance their own growth cultivation. Only through joint efforts can a spiritually aligned learning community be built，thereby preventing the recessive truancy.