Introduction Occupational stress is one of the negative factors present in nursing work, especially in the hospital context; that factor was exasperated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Organizational strategies are very useful to reduce stress at work, individual coping behaviors can also contribute to the understanding of this factor.

Objective This study aims to understand coping strategies of hospital nurses with occupational stress in the Covid-19 pandemic context.

Method This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, which was developed at a university hospital located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The target population was male and female nurses who were employed in the research hospital. Data were collected through virtual individual interviews, based on a previously defined semi-structured questionnaire, and analyzed according to thematic content analysis. Intentional sampling was used and the participants were recruited until data saturation. The project was approved by study scenario and Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings at Federal University of São Carlos; all ethical precepts were observed.

Partial Results Thirteen nurses participated in the data collection: 10 (76.92%) women and 3 (23.07%) men, aged between 31 and 55 years old. Working as a nurse: 1 (7.69%) worked between 1 to 5 years, 3 (23.07%) between 5.1 to 10 years, 6 (46.15%) between 10.1 to 20 years and 3 (23.07%)> 20 years. For the duration of work experience at the studied institution: 1 (7.69%) < 1 year, 9 (69.23%) between 1 to 5 years and 3 (23.07%) between 5.1 to 10 years. It was expected, with the results of this research, to understand the coping strategies used by hospital nurses to cope with occupational stress in the current pandemic scenario of COVID-19.