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Nurses’ work requires an exclusive devotion and commitment. Although it is particularly burdening and highly stressful, it is not well paid and has a low status in the social hierarchy. The aim of the study was: 1) assessment and validity of various aspects of job; 2) understanding emotions towards nurses’ work; 3) determination of job satisfac‑ tion perceived by studying nurses. The study involved 281 students of extramural complementary Nursing Course at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The authors’ demographic questionnaire, the Work Description Inventory (WDI), the Job Affect Scale (JAS), and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) were used in the study. The obtained results were statistically analysed. Students obtained the average performance in the above mentioned measures of job evaluation. As regards the evaluation of superiors and the work content, the results obtained in the tested sample were slightly elevated. In terms of the importance of various aspects of job evaluation, the relationship with colleagues as well as the content and hours of work were found to be the most important, while salary appeared to be the least important aspect. The evaluation of the affect at work showed that students achieved the average results using the positive emotions scale and low results on the negative affect scale. The job satisfaction index val‑ ues suggest that the students are on average satisfied with the work in their profession. On the basis of the performed study, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) according to the students’ assessment, the relationship with col‑ leagues as well as the content and time of work are the most important aspects of work, whereas salary is the least significant; 2) more than half of the surveyed felt positive emotions at their workplace; 3) respondents were on aver‑ age satisfied with their work; 4) undertaking the extramural complementary nursing course is associated with stu‑ dents’ positive attitude towards the nursing profession and their place of work.

Burnout is a response to stress, the source of which is the situation at work. This phenomenon concerns mainly representatives of professions whose essence is to work with people, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and others; their close committed interactions with others constitute the core of professional activity and determine the success and development. Participants of the study were 281 students of extramural complementary nursing course at the University of Warmia and Mazury, mostly aged 40-60 years, employed in hospital wards and with employment contracts. In the study, the authors’ demographic questionnaire of structuralized interview and the MBI questionnaire, developed by Maslach and Jackson, in the Polish version by Pasikowski (2004), were used. The obtained results were statistically analysed. The performed analysis of burnout has confirmed that emotional exhaustion is associated with the length of employment, the number of days off and the number of institutions where nurses were employed. We did not observe, however, any correlation with these variables between depersonalisation and a sense of the lack of achievements. Furthermore, no dependence of the severity of the professional burnout symptoms on the surveyed groups’ age was found. It turned out that the persons working in shifts system felt much stronger depletion of emotion than nurses working in a daily system. It was also observed that nurses employed in hospitals felt much stronger symptoms in both areas of occupational burnout than those working in other institutions. Furthermore, it was not confirmed that the absence of the sense of achievement depended on where the respondents were employed. Taking into account the reference levels of the three dimensions of burnout acc. to MBI it was found out that most respondents were characterized by a low value within the emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation and a high value in terms of a sense of the lack of achievement.