For the purpose of examining the characteristics of job stress and its association with the mental health of hospital nurses based on the job-stress model, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was given to 101 nurses in a public hospital, and the data for 98 women(97%) were analyzed. The level of their job demands was comparable with that of the general male workers; they also experienced a large amount of job-control and reward, compared with the general male workers. This seems to be a favorable situation, compared with those previously reported for hospital nurses in Japan. However, their mental health status was poor compared with that of the general population, in spite of the above favorable situation. Their mental health was associated with problems in their personal relationships, their reward from work, concern about personal matters, suppression as a stress-coping style, and age; their reward from work also exhibited a buffering effect on problems in their personal relationships. Some of these correlates agreed with those in the general workers, while the others seemed to be specific to the subject nurses. It should be examined in a future study whether gender and shift-work affect the above correlates, and whether the stress coping style of hospital nurses exhibits any characteristics compared with that of the general workers. The authors also introduced the stress management strategy newly adopted in this hospital based on the results of the present study.

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