Background: Palliative treatment is a holistic approach to patients and families in order to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. The need for palliative in Indonesia is increasing while the care provided by nurses is still limited and cannot be given as a whole. Less of education, training, references, policies, and funds related to palliative treatment and society support are a bit of a challenge in fulfilling palliative. Research objective: to determine nurses' challenges in providing palliative. Research methods: uses a literature review. The database used consists of Pubmed, ScienceDirect and EBSCOhost. Criteria inclusion in this research is articles published in Indonesian and English language in the last ten years (2010-2020), full text, and qualitative article. Exclusion criteria are literature and systematic review. Data analysis used is simplified approach with critical appraisal. Results: Based on the results of a study of four literatures, three themes were found that show the challenges of nurses in providing palliative care including the challenges of health workers, challenges in the form of policies, as well as challenges from patients and families. Recommendation: The researcher hopes that in the future there will be a research about action to overcome challenges.