Summary: Nursing care is associated with a mental burden, which is usually based on a high level of responsibility, a permanent contact with humans and continuously increasing demands and requests on nursing staff. The fact that a nurse taking care of senior citizens is challenged by the idea of her own age can not be neglected. Aim: The goal of this work is to offer a recent knowledge on the mental burden in nurses taking care of senior people and objectively assess the level of burden in these nurses working at departments of internal medicine and follow-up care. Methods: We asked 120 nurses taking care of senior citizens at four in-patient departments to enter our study. We applied the Meister´s questionnaire which is meant to assess one´s own level of a mental burden. Results: The analysis in 95 respondents indicated that 69% of nurses at departments of internal medicine and 58% of nurses at departments of follow-up care feel to be pressed for time. Nevertheless, 54% of nurses at departments of internal medicine and 70% of nurses at departments of follow-up care are satisfied with thein own job and like to go to work. At the same time, 60% of nurses at departments of internal medicine and 47% of nurses at departments of follow-up care would not change their job. The work was described as interesting and mentally-challenging in 79% of nurses at departments of internal medicine and 70% of nurses at departments of follow-up care. The comparison of results among various workplaces indicated that the nurses at departments of followup care tend to be mentally overstrained, whilst the mental burden in the nurses at departments of internal medicine was at the higher normal level. Conclusions: Our results showed a higher mental burden in the nurses taking care of senior people at departments of follow-up care. However, the ascertained values in the nurses at departments of internal medicine were at the higher normal level, which reflects a generally increased mental burden in nursing of elderly citizens.