Background: Forensic psychiatric care is a context where patients are being cared for without consent. Nurses play an important role in this care which is very complex due to its duality. Nurses develop their knowledge through education and experience in clinical nursing. Depending on where the nurse is in her knowledge development, willingness to care for patients may differ.

Objective: The aim of this study was to highlight experiences of psychiatric nurses willingness to care for patients in forensic psychiatric care.

Method: This qualitative study was carried out with semi-structurered interviews. Eight psychiatric nurses from three different forensic psychiatric clinics participated in the study. A qualitative content analysis of transcripts from the interviews seeked to reach the latent content of the text.

Results: The nurses sensed they were safe in the workplace by a number of things wich included solidarity with coworkers and good leadership. Furthermore nurses also had driving power and motivation to grow by influencing and interest for the patients.

Conclusion: It is implied that the nurses experience not necessarily lead to knowledge development about caring.