Objectives: to associate pleasure and suffering indicators with aspects related to nursing work in hospitals.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional quantitative study conducted with 152 nurses from a university hospital in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba State, Brazil. Data were collected through interviews, using a tool to obtain sociodemographic data, work characteristics and the Pleasure and Suffering Indicators at Work Scale.
Results: pleasure living and its domains were rated as satisfactory, while suffering factors and their domains were critically assessed. Statistically significant associations were observed among pleasure and suffering indicators, and some characteristics of nurses' work.
Conclusions: it was evidenced that nurses had critical levels of suffering at work associated with their work practice characteristics.