The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis was to discover the experiences of nurses how they support the patient’s relatives. The aim was to discover how and what kind of support nurses give to the patient’s relatives. The aim was to find out which reasons block to give support the patient’s relatives. This topic was chosen HAMK list of topics but the original commissioner was changed. The commissioner of this thesis was Kanta-Häme central hospital surgical ward 5A.

The study material was gathered by qualitative research method. The study was carried out as theme interviews. Theme interviews were carried out as group interviews. The group interview was done two times and in both groups were two nurses. Nurses working in the ward where there are intestinal cancer patients and their relatives. In the end the research material was analyzed by using content analysis.

On the basis of study nurses support patient’s relatives in the first instance by giving information. Emotional and concrete support nurses also give but cautiously. Emotional support was given for example by touching or presence. Concrete support was given specially for lonely relatives. Reasons which block to give support were lack of time, nurses’ lack of skills and sometimes relatives don’t want to receive support from nurses.