Background Despite prolific previous research and guidelines on how nurses should work to reduce the risk of spreading hospital-acquired infections, there are still barriers that causes suffering for patients.

Aim To describe the nurse's experiences of preventing hospital-acquired infections in closed care.

Method Literature study with qualitative articles.

Results The results showed two themes, work enviroment and social culture, and the nurses’ competence. These themes describe how the nurses experienced obstacles to provide proper care. Several things contributed to inadequate implementation of preventive work against hospital-aquired infections. These were lack of support from leadership and increased workload, ignorance of hygiene routines and few educational opportunites to increase awareness and competence. 

Conclusion The nurses’ preventive work against hospital-acquired infections can lead to improvements and maintenance of proper care for the patients. The results showed that the knowledge and compliance with routines is inadequate. If this improves it may reduce the number of patients affected and thereby to reduce the suffering. It can even improve the nurses’ work environment.