Methods. An anonymous survey was performed during May 1−31, 2012. General practice and community care nurses from 4 primary health care centers of Kaunas city participated in the survey (N=230, response rate 82.1%). All the respondents were women. A 56-item Extended Nursing Stress Scale was used. The Committee on Bioethics at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences provided permission to perform this survey.

Results. The most frequent stressful situations for nurses were related to patient’s death and dying, as well as to situations of patient care and communication with their relatives. Discrimination was the rarest stressful factor among the nurses. The nurses were enthusiastic at work and 83% of them had no intent to leave.

Conclusions. Death and dying are the most stressful factors for nurses at work in primary care centers. The other source of stress is irrelevant professional preparation of nurses, shortage of necessary knowledge and uncertainty in meeting patients’ needs. The nurses expressed satisfaction with their job and felt their work was pleasant for them. Intent to leave the job had a weak positive relationship with nurses’ stress at work and correlated with their job satisfaction.