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“togetherness,” finding meaning over a long time, means becoming relatable and understandable (Olausson et al., 2019). To understand suffering, nurses ascribe meaning to erratic behavior, as finding the cause of suffering is a way to make it comprehensible (Vincze et al., 2015). Being confronted with suffering can have a serious implication for nursing; interpreting and attending to the patient's suffering allows for establishing a more compassionate connection, seeing the “whole person” and not just the illness (Kanov et al., 2004). The second theme further entails the dynamics of compassion: when the nurses must form a response to patients suffering, an expression of how the patient is suffering is interpreted. This theme further entails the mutual dependency that comes from a nurse trying to give a respectful response to the patient's suffering; this also describes how nurses must respect themselves in order to be able to respect the other. How nurses approach the patient is of great importance (Gustafsson et al., 2013). Nurses try to establish trust and normality in their bond with the patient—a bond that is a foundation of care (Gildberg et al., 2012). Nurses also feel a responsibility for responding to the patient's behavior adequately in order to correct bad behavior (Kumpula et al., 2019). If suffering is not understood correctly, the response may further inflict suffering, especially when the response is in form of a demand or ultimatum (Vincze et al., 2015), given in order to keep the calm in a turbulent environment (Salzmann-Erikson et al., 2011). Our results indicate that a nurse's response to suffering is rooted in compassion when suffering is well-defined or even when the patient is avoiding nurses. However, when the patient's suffering is hard to grasp or comes disguised as threats and violence, it challenges the nurses to feel the others pain and give a compassionate response. Being compassionate means suffering with, connecting to the others hurt, noticing pain means feeling something for the other, but compassion also involves the will to do whatever it takes to alleviate suffering (Kanov et al., 2004). Our findings suggest that despite finding themselves in encounters that are experienced as tedious or uncertain, the nurses did not surrender or distance themselves; despite the obvious risk, nurses stood their ground, not abandoning the patient in need. Instead, nurses adjusted to the demand with the intention of being professional (Vincze et al., 2015).