Background: About 21 million children around the world need palliative care every year. Palliative care aims to prevent suffering and increase quality of life among patients with life threatening diseases and their families. The whole family is affected when a child is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. The nurse plays a key role in palliative care and provides care and support to the child and family. The asset of palliative care for children is limited around the world and mostly focused on adults.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to shed light on nurses’ experiences of providing palliative care to children in inpatient care. 

Method: A literature-based study design with a qualitative approach. The study is based on eleven scientific articles and analyzed with Friberg’s five step method.

Results: The study emerged three themes and seven subthemes. Family-centered care was an important part of the palliative care that nurses provide. They experienced a lack of knowledge and training. The care came with a wide spectrum of emotions for nurses that could be difficult to handle. They needed to find coping strategies. Nurses needed communication skills to manage challenging dialogues with the family.

Conclusion: The need for increased knowledge and training calls for skills development offered by the workplace. It’s important so that nurses can feel confident providing palliative care to children and their families. Increased knowledge of palliative care can increase nursing quality and strengthen the profession of nurses.