Ethical sensitivity is one of characteristics that its owner is susceptible to ethical dilemmas and sees phenomenon from ethical aspect. Often nursing students face barriers to acquiring ethical sensitivity. A qualitative design was used to examine nursing students’ perceptions of barriers to acquiring professional ethical sensitivity. Eight MS degree nursing students were selected purposefully. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and Burnard’s content analysis was employed. Three categories arose: unknowing, unwilling and inability. Findings of this study show that personal characteristics, educational curriculum and clinical environment effect on ethical sensitivity. This study offer classification of ethical sensitivity barriers which provide background to further qualitative and quantitative researches.