This study aimed to know the professional satisfaction of teaching staff nurses from undergraduate nursing courses at the municipal district of São Paulo and identify the factors related to their satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work. It is a descriptive, exploratory research with quantitative and qualitative data approach. The project was submitted to the appreciation of the Ethics Committee in Research from the Federal University of São Paulo, receiving the approval number 1539. The sample was made up of 90 teaching staff nurses that followed their professional activities in 10 of the 23 universities that offered the undergraduate nursing courses in the municipal district of São Paulo in 2007. For the quantitative approach the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire for Teachers and the analysis made according to the framework of the descriptive statistics was used. In the qualitative approach, interviews were made, which were submitted to content analysis according to Bardin. Both analyses were guided by educational referentials and followed by the line of study of Herzberg which referred to satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors at work. The quantitative results showed that working directly with students, the relationship with work and personal achievement are all relevant factors to the satisfaction of the nursing teaching staff, as well as social political factors which were prone to dissatisfaction. In the qualitative analysis, satisfaction was evident in the following categories: Enjoying Teaching, Search for New Knowledge, Relationship between Pairs, Teacher Student Relationship, Being Acknowledged, Student"s Interest in Learning and Student"s Development. Regarding the dissatisfaction, the categories that came up were Poor Management, Deficient Knowledge from the Starting Student, Deficit of Resources for Teaching, Research on the Detriment of Undergraduate Teaching, Work Overload and the Low Salary and Instability in the Job. In short, the study showed that the teaching staff members presented low levels of satisfaction resultant because of the balance between the satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors aforementioned. In conclusion, it was expressed, in view of all factors that points needed to be worked on in different degrees in order for the staff members to be able to improve their satisfaction levels.