Background: Self harm has increased among adolescents during the last years. Studies reveal nurses' attitudes as an issue. The need to investigate nurses' experience of patients who self-harm is very important to see what is missing. Relation between nurses and patients is a vital part of caring and studies show that very little research is done in this area.

Aim: The aim of this study is to overlook nurses' experience when they meet a patient that is self- harming.

Metod: A literature study with a mixed approach. Articles where chosen, read, reviewed and analysed to find similarities and differences in their result.

Results: The result came out with three main categories and seven sub categories. The first category is Difficult to understand self-injury which has two sub categories; Difficult to understand the behaviour and Difficult to understand the reason. The second category is Self- injury evokes emotions and has three sub categories; Anger, concern and anxiety, Empathy and conflicting emotions and Creates conflicts. The third category is The environmental impact on nursing care which has two sub categories; The meaning of time and Environmental influences and care.

Conclusion: The results show that nurses felt that they needed further education about self- harm, that many of them were negative or insecure while meeting patients and did not know what to say in fear of making the behaviour worse. Many nurses also considered it hard to understand self-harm and why someone would like to harm themselves.