While the literature suggests that nurses have negative attitudes and lack training related to suicidal patients, understanding the meaning of suicide attempts for adolescents is one avenue that remains unexplored in the suicide literature.Exploring the phenomenon from the ontological perspective of phenomenology can advance the nursing and public health understanding of suicidal adolescents' experiences in the ED.A deeper understand ing of the phenomenon could also help health care providers in their willingness and abiliry to address the problem attentively.Understanding meaning can lead to new and effective interventions to reduce suicide attempts in teens.