Abstract
In a survey on work, stress, and health-related behaviors among 673 municipal employees from various occupational categories, 68 respondents working as nurses reported significantly more stress on the job yet drank no more than the other workers in the study. To investigate mechanisms intervening in the hypothesized relationship between workplace stress and drinking, semi-structured ethnographic interviews were conducted with 21 urban hospital nurses. Content analysis of these interviews identified and described stressors faced by the nurses in their work, as well as mechanisms for coping with stress. The ethnographic findings help explain the lack of a simple relationship between workplace stress and drinking.