PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between upper-scale general hospital nurses' experience of verbal abuse and job stress. METHODS: Subjects were 245 nurses working at 3 upper-scale general hospitals in B city and the data were collected by convenience samples using self-reported questionnaires consist of general characteristics, verbal abuse and job stress. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test and Pearson's correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The mean score of verbal abuse level was 2.2 points and job stress level was 2.5 points. Experience of verbal abuse and job stress among the subjects had a positive correlation, and verbal abuse against nurses especially showed a strong correlation with job stress. CONCLUSION: Results of this study show that nurses' experience of verbal abuse increases their job stress. Therefore, continuous education and training programs that are based on the case studies with coping method according to clinical careers and working areas are required to reduce upper-scale general hospital nurses' experience of verbal abuse and decrease their job stress.