The main purpose of this study was to identify the effect of stress management program on the perceived stress, stress response, ways of coping of nurses.The data were collected from September 22 to December 21, 1997. The subjects were 45 emergency nurses of three university hospital located in seoul ; 25 assigned for the experimental group and 20 for the control group.The stress management program was composed of cognitive training, behavioral training and progressive muscle relaxation. The subjects of the experimental group carried out the 15-minute progressive muscle relaxation according to recorded-tape once a day for 6 weeks. The cognitive and the behavioral training were conducted by the investigator for 5～8 subjects at a time for 9 series, at an interval of 4～5days.The instruments used in the study was the perceived stress scale developed by Levenstein et al.(1993), Symptoms of stress Inventory(1991), and ways of coping scale developed by Lazarus & Folkman(1984).The data were analyzed by SAS program, using descriptive statistics, χ2-test, t-test, paired t-test.The results were as follows :1.　The perceived stress of experimental group was lower than that of the control group. However, no significant difference between the two groups was revealed.2.　The stress response of experimental group was reduced after stress management program and the stress response of control group was reduced after stress management program. but no significant difference between the two groups was revealed.3.　The problem oriented coping of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group, however no significant difference between the two groups was revealed.4.　The emotional oriented coping of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group, however no significant difference between the two groups was revealed.