Introduction: Because of the nature of their profession, nurses experience high levels of stress, and neglect of understanding and coping with this stress will cause irreparable effects. Accordingly, the present study was performed to investigate the relationship between Job stress and coping strategies among intensive ward nurses in Gorgan.

Methods: This was a correlational descriptive study done during year 2014. The instruments used in this study included a demographic questionnaire, Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS) and the Folkman and Lazarus Coping Style Questionnaire. The research environment included critical care unites of Gorgan university hospitals. Sampling was carried out by the census sampling method. Overall, 74 nurses participated in the study. After data collection, analysis was performed with the SPSS software (version 16). For the analysis of data in terms of variables, descriptive statistic and deductive statistic (Pearson correlation, stepwise regression) were used.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.39 ± 6.33 years. The most stressful condition was conflict with the supervisor (2.65 ± 0.59). The most commonly used strategies were self-control (5 ± 14.18). The results of multiple regression analysis showed that the variables gender (21.57 = β, and P = 0.014) and working at the dialysis unit (27.08 = β and P < 0.001) were good predictors for occupational stress. Other variables such as coping strategies, age, education and marital status were not significantly related to job stress.

Conclusions: According to the high level of some stress dimensions such as conflict with supervisor among nurses, and also the relationship between job stress and factors such as working at the dialysis ward and gender, it is necessary for nurse managers to apply some measures to prevent and reduce stress; these measures could include improving the work environment, education on coping methods, training and sufficient support of personnel.