Introduction Several studies have shown that occupational stress is low in workplaces where organisational resources are high. On the other hand, there are few studies that have specialised in investigating similar matters in health care workers. This study was conducted to examine whether the relationship between organisational resources and occupational stress can also be observed in Japanese nurses.

Methods The subjects were 851 nurses and midwives who were enrolled in two general hospitals as of 2015. The investigation period was July 2015 to August 2015. There were 727 respondents. Missing items were invalidated and excluded from the analysis. The independent variables were defined as WIN, age (20–50 years old), gender, and workplace (university hospital and branch hospital) and the dependent variables were the four subscales of the JCQ (job demands, job control, social support from the supervisor, and social support from coworkers). Multivariate analysis of variance was performed. WIN was used as a measure of organisational resources, which were classified into the three groups of (1) low score (−1.0 SD or less), (2) medium score (−1.0 SD to +1.0 SD), and (3) high score (+1.0 SD or more).

Results There was a significant association between all groups of WIN and job requirement, job control, supervisor’s support, and colleague’s support (F(2, 569)=15.35, p<0.001, F(2, 562)=9.85, p<0.001, F(2, 568)=135.90, p<0.001, and F(2, 565)=50.74, p<0.001 respectively).

Discussion The nurses working in two general hospitals in Japan provided similar results to those in previous studies. However, this research was limited to only two hospitals, and the same may not be found for nurses in general. In future, it may be necessary to collaborate with other institutions to target more nurses in medical institutions.