Objective To understand the real perceived experiences of reverse care among pediatric nurses, and to provide references for improving nurses′ caring perception and patients′ ability to provide reverse care, thereby building harmonious nurse-patient relationships. Methods A descriptive qualitative study was designed, and 15 pediatric nurses were selected using purposive sampling for semi-structured in- depth interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze and summarize the interview data. Results Three main themes and nine sub-themes were identified:emotional experiences of reverse care (perceiving the care from patients and their families toward medical staff, perceiving the care from patients and their families toward other patients, and perceiving the patients′ self-care); positive impacts of reverse care (promoting personal professional identity and career development, inspiring intrinsic humanistic caring motivation, and enhancing nurse- patient relationship); and factors influencing the perception of reverse care (cognition and sensitivity toward reverse care, workload and work atmosphere, and personal emotions and mentality). Conclusion Pediatric nurses have diverse emotional experiences of reverse care, which play a positive role on them. Therefore, efforts should be made to strengthen humanistic care education and explore the bidirectional interaction model of reverse care; reinforce the "positive feedback loop" of reverse care and build mutually dedicated nurse-patient relationships; and create a caring work environment to establish a positive caring culture, so as to promote the harmonious development of nurse-patient relationships.