The purpose of the study was to determine burnout, job stress, and coping strategies, and to determine the relationship among job stress, coping strategies and burnout. Participants of this study were nursing staffs in county general hospitals in Kenya (n = 166). Simple random sampling was used to identify these participants; response rate was 95% with a final sample of 157 participants. The data were collected by using self-administered questionnaire, including Demographic Questionnaire, Nurse Burnout Questionnaire, Expanded Nursing Stress Scale and Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Statistical procedures used for data analysis included descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient.

               The results revealed that nursing staffs experienced low level of burnout, moderate job stress, and a moderate use of coping strategies. Job stress had a moderate positive significant relationship with burnout (r = .362, p < .001) whereas, coping strategies had a low negative insignificant relationship with burnout (r = -.039). Workload was found to be the greatest stressor thus contributing to a moderate level of emotional exhaustion.

               Nurse Managers and hospital administrators can use these findings to improve nurse work environments by considering the issue of staff shortage as a priority. There is need for the recruitment of more nurses and shift tasking of non nursing duties to ensure that nurses have sufficient time to attend to patients emotional needs.

  Keywords: job stress, coping strategies, burnout, nursing staffs, Kenya