Background: Nurses often encounter traumatic events at work, but how do they handle and process the feelings that comes with that? And do they have the time to cope with the feelings afterwards?

Aim: To highlight nurses' experiences of dealing with traumatic care situations.

Method: A literature-based study with the analysis of qualitative research. Results: Three themes emerged from the results. Sense of belonging, keeping a distance and experience provides development. Sense of belonging shows that the feeling of being part of a team and being able to share emotions helps the nurses to deal and cope with traumatic situations. Keeping a distance shows that the nurses sometimes feel the need to keep their feelings on a distance to be able to deal with traumatic situations. Experience provides development shows that time and experience gives the nurses confidence and resistance which make it easier for them to deal with traumatic situations.

Conclusion: The team makes a big difference in how the nurse will be able to deal with and process the feelings after encountering a traumatic situation at work. The number of traumatic experiences also played a role in how the nurses were able to deal with and process their feelings. With the experiences came the resistance which was good in the process of dealing with traumatic situations.