The purpose of this study is to analyze characteristics of character strengths and effect factors of subjective happiness of oncology nurses. This research was conducted on the theoretical background of positive psychology.

This study was a cross-sectional study that data were collected from 182 oncology nurses working in a cancer hospital with 500 beds from January to March, 2017. The research instruments were self-reported questionnaires of VIA-IS and Subjective Happiness Scale. The data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression analysis.

The average of items about total score of character strengths was 3.38 (±0.29) on the 5-point Likert scale and about subjective happiness was 4.95 (±0.90) on the 7-point Likert scale. Signature strengths of the subjects were classified by six sub-areas of character strengths, frequency of humanity was highest and followed by courage. The level of subjective happiness has significant positive correlations with character strengths. The factors that affect subjective happiness of oncology nurses were job-satisfaction and total score of character strengths. The explanatory power of these factors on the subjective happiness was 34.0%.

We recommend to develop a happiness enhancing program focused on job-satisfaction and character strengths for oncology nurses and to verify their effectiveness.

Burnout is known to be a multidimensional concept consisting of three sub-types, but it is not well known how each sub-type is associated with job stress and job satisfaction.

This study conducted a survey with Nurses (N=192) in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, and analyzed how three subtypes of burnout (measured by Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)) were associated with job stress and job satisfaction.

The results suggested that job stress affected, among the subtypes of exhaustion, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization burnout, but did not affect achievement reduction burnout. On the other hand, job satisfaction had significant effects on achievement reduction burnout, but it did not affect emotional exhaustion and depersonalization burnout.

Among the subtypes of burnout, emotion exhaustion and depersonalization may have different psychological processes from reduced achievement.