Background: The palliative care's unique characteristics and specific guidelines are described in the steering documents by the WHO and “Socialstyrelsen”, it includes both patient and related persons. The specific palliative care is divided into two phases that have different goals and directions regarding the patient. The are described as start and end palliative phase, where the later phase is referred to as end-of-life care. Experiences of existential and emotional suffering, vulnerability and stress are described in patients' and relatives' reports.

Aim: The purpose of the literature review is to describe nurses´ experiences of caring for patients at the end of life.   Method: The literature review is based on ten scientific original articles. The articles were analyzed with the help of Friberg so that themes could be identified. The search bases used to find the articles were CINAHL complete and Medline. The results articles are published between 2010–2019 and are of qualitative design.

Results: The results present nurses' experiences in end of life care. The results described nurses' experiences of being professional as well as being fellow humans when caring for patients at the end of their lives. Finally, the result described the nurses’ experience in finding a balance between being professional and fellow human in end-of-life care.

Discussion:  The results were discussed based on Travelbee's theory of the interpersonal relationship and the establishment and importance of communication. The nurses strived to establish the interpersonal relationship, but nevertheless experienced many obstacles and difficulties in their endeavors. Furthermore, the nurses´ experiences of being a fellow human being were also discussed. That the experiences the nurse goes through shapes her as a human being and influences her as a nurse.