: Background. Delivering bad news is a sensitive and challenging aspect of nursing healthcare, requiring a holistic approach that respects patients' preferences, cultural values, and religious beliefs to promote adaptation to the state's health. Aim: map the evidence of the dimensions present in the communication and management of bad news by nurses, with the person in a palliative situation, their caregivers, and family members. Methods: Based on Joanna Briggs Institute methodology, the search was conducted through MEDLINE Complete (EBSCOhost), CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost), SciELO, and Open Access Scientific Repository in Portugal. From a total of 756 articles, 14 were included, published between 2018 and 2023. Results: Structure components in bad news are influenced by the characteristics of the palliative patients, their caregivers, family members; nurses; and the organizational environment. Promoting the quality of the communication process is desirable through continuous and advanced training in end-of-life; training in bad news; religiously and culturally sensitive nursing interventions centered on hope and maintaining faith; emotional management; and utilization of a checklist protocol. Conclusions: Honest communication allows people to actively participate in the decision-making process and in the trajectory of the care plan that is focused on themselves and their preferences, which has outcomes in functional capacity and readaptation.