Introduction:
Stress accompanies people throughout their lives, both in the personal and professional spheres of their activity. Medical staff, and nurses in particular, are affected by numerous stressful situations due to high expectations resulting from the specificity of work with the sick. Coping with stress is a process that depends on multiple factors and the choice of best course of action has a critical impact on the work quality of nurses, their interpersonal relations and health condition.

Aim:
The paper aims at analysing the published studies on occupational stress and ways of coping with it by Polish nurses.

Materials and Method:
The meta-analysis method was applied in the research and a review of the available scientific literature on the subject of coping with stress by nurses was undertaken.

Results:
Based on a review of Polish scientific journals it was established that the number of published study results relating to occupational stress and ways of coping with it by nurses is relatively limited. The most frequently applied research tool to study different ways of coping with occupational stress by nurses was the CISS Questionnaire by Endler and Parker, and one of the most frequently applied stress coping strategy among nurses was focusing on the task.

Conclusions:
Given the limited number of available studies on stress and coping with it by nurses, further studies will be continued in that area using standardised research tools.