Decreasing traumatic stress is a key issue for nurses who experience trauma, but trauma of nurses in the workplace has only rarely been investigated in detail. This study was designed to characterize trauma of nurses in the workplace in detail, and to make comparison of coping strategies employed by nurses who recovered from traumatic stress and those of nurses with persistent traumatic stress. A study of trauma was conducted by asking 782 nurses to complete a questionnaire. Valid responses were provided from 592 nurses. Free descriptions of trauma were analysed using the KJ method to characterize the trauma of nurses. A comparison of scores on coping subscales in the persistent trauma group and recovery group was made by the unpaired t‐test. Of the 592 nurses, 301 female nurses had experienced trauma in the workplace. The analysis revealed that 50 nurses (17 per cent) recovered from traumatic stress, while 251 (83 per cent) had persistent traumatic stress. Trauma predominantly consisted of direct exposure to violent language or non‐supportive behaviour by physicians, followed by witnessing and learning of experiences. The results suggested that ‘positive action’, ‘positive thinking’, ‘cognitive avoidance’, ‘uncontrolled thinking’ and ‘talking’ lead to persistence of traumatic stress. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.