Background: Patients experience that nurses don’t have the time to provide the care the patients’ wishes to receive. Patients also have expectations on characteristics a nurse should have to be perceived as a good nurse. Amongst other things the relationships between nurses and patients are described as crucial for patients to feel faith and trust when they receive care. Aim: To describe nurses’ experiences when caring for patients with incurable cancer.Method: A systematic literature study based on Evans was used. Ten articles were analyzed to get a result. Results: Nurses’ experiences when caring for patients with cancer are presented with two themes, ”Nurses’ experiences of being there for patients and their families” and ”Nurses’ experiences of managing challenges with caring”. Each category has subcategories that frames the category further. These subcategories are ”To be a support”, ”Ability to listen”, ”To meet existential worry”, ”Lack of time” and ”To be a leader”.Conclusion: Nurses meet challenges in the form of lack of time and lack of knowledge. This leads to difficulties when caring for the patient’s psychosocial needs.
Keywords: cancer, experiences, psychosocial, nurses, systematic literature study, caring relationships.