Background: To investigate the relationship of job burnout, depression, with job performance among nurses and to construct a job performance model.Methods: Questionnaires were administered to 792 nurses working in 5 hospitals in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China from July to August in 2015.Results: Of the 792 nurses, statistically significant differences were found in the age, educational status, years working, department, job title, and personality types with respect to burnout, depression, and job performance ( P <0.05). The job burnout scores were positively correlated with the depression scores and negatively correlated with the job performance ( P <0.001). Nurses in the 25-29 years age group had the highest burnout scores ( P <0.01). The burnout scores were higher among those who worked 6-15 years than those who worked more than 15 years ( P <0.01). The job performance scores were higher in the ≥16-year than <6-year working group ( P <0.05). The burnout scores were lower among intermediate-level than junior-level nurses ( P <0.05), but the job performance scores were higher than those of junior-level nurses ( P <0.01). Path analysis results showed that among the examined job characteristics, the direct effects of age, years working, and job title were greatest.Conclusion: This study suggests that the main risk factors among job characteristics were age, years working, and job title. Burnout may lead to depression and a decline in job performance.