Objectives: A qualitative study was made to explore healthcare staff’s discussions about existential issues when caring for patients with cancer on a surgical ward, as described in supervision sessions. Methods: Secondary content analysis of twelve tape-recorded supervision sessions was used. The sessions lasted for two hours every third week during one year. The supervision sessions were conducted at a surgical clinic in a county hospital in the middle of Sweden. Twenty-one participants, 25 to 55 years of age (MD=38) who had worked on a surgical clinic for 1 to 30 years (MD=10) participated. Findings: The analysis showed that reflections about existential issues do exist among healthcare staff in surgical wards. There are barriers, in staff themselves as well as in the organisation hindering them to encounter patients’ existential needs which is illustrated by the domain: “Health care staff’s discussions of their existential dilemmas” and the themes “feelings of powerlessness”, “identifying with patients”, and “getting close or keeping a distance”. Staff observed that patients have existential needs which are illustrated by the domain: “Health care staff’s discussions of patients’ existential distress” and the themes “being in despair” and “feelings of isolation”. Conclusions: This study shows that healthcare staff in surgical wards is conscious of patients’ existential distress. Yet staff lack strategies to encounter patients’ existential issues. There is a need for knowledge about the meaning of existential issues and education for staff working in a surgical ward and how to encounter patients’ existential needs.