Background: There has been an evolution from district nurses previously providing patients with the opportunity to contact health services, to them now providing medical assessments and advice via telephone counselling. Telephone counselling is governed by laws that strengthen patient safety, something which may be complicated to accomplish when the call is made via a third party.

Aim: The aim was to describe district nurses' experiences of giving telephone advice to young people via a third party.

Methods: The design had an inductive approach. Ten district nurses were interviewed and the interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Findings: The district nurses' wanted to avoid calls via a third party. They experienced that third party felt responsible for young people. At the same time, the district nurses' wanted to protect young people, make safe decisions and avoid misleading information. The district nurses' experienced difficulties in making accurate assessments and found it difficult to obtain the correct information.

Conclusion: District nurses want to avoid telephone counselling for young people via a third party as they experienced it as difficult. Misleading information from a third party may compromise the safety of patients. Good skills are needed to cope with giving advice to young people on the phone via a third party. Employers should arrange for training in telephone counselling.