This study defines grief stress as stress that accompanies grief experienced in the nursing profession. We sought to test the hypothesis that nurses on the job experience stress-related growth after experiencing grief stress by assigning meaning to the stress. We also sought to elucidate factors affecting this process. A self-administered questionnaire on grief stress, assignment of meaning to the stress, stress-related growth, compassion fatigue, and background factors was given to 665 nurses with two or more years of clinical experience. After receiving 567 valid responses, covariance structure analysis was conducted to test the hypothetical model. The hypothetical model of experiencing stress-related growth after experiencing grief stress by assigning meaning to the stress was supported. A meaningful path was formed between assignment of meaning to grief stress (.58, p<.001) and stress-related growth (.90，p<.001). Grief stress experienced in the nursing profession had a directly impact on compassion fatigue. Assigning meaning to the stress had the indirect effect of reducing compassion fatigue. "Position at work" and "opportunities to have discussions" are background factors that significantly affect assigning meaning to stress.
