critical care units are the most sensitive professional units of hospital, and one of the stressors in nursing profession is working in these units. Observing dying patients, doing more work, communicational problems and other environmental factors are the main stressors of these nurses. This study was performed to determine stressors of nurses working in critical care units of Ardabil hospitals.

This is a descriptive study. The study population was the all of nurses working in critical units of Ardabil hospitals, contains 48 nurses and all of them were selected for the sample. The mean for collecting data was questionnaire.

in this study 46% of nurses mentioned that new experiences in profession is the first stressors and being not to able for decision-making about living and dying of patients is the second stressor.

of course knowing the stressors of nurses working directly with patient can decrease potential problems and increase quality and quantity of nursing care.

critical care unit, nurses, stressor