Background: Nurses have an important role in identifying life-threatening and serious diseases. Nurses must be able to care for both children and adults but they feel that it is tough, demanding and stressful to care for urgently ill children.

Aim: The aim was to describe nurses´ experience of caring for ill children.

Method: Literature-based study in which ten qualitative research articles are rewied and analyzed.

Results: Three major categories were identified. "feelings of nurturing children" which included fear of failure, linked to their own children and emotions related to the situation. "need for knowledge" which included communication, care for children and stress. The last category was "present parents" which included pressure from parents, taking care of two patients and parents' influence on the child.

Conclusion: The nurse experienced insecurity and inadequacy in the care of acutely or urgently ill children. They experienced a lack of knowledge in child care.