Stress is an inevitable part of nursing life. Nurses need to respond to their stressful environment contents to reduce negative consequences. We examined the role of dimensions of emotional intelligence in predicting coping reactions to stress in 201 college nursing practitioners in this crosssectional study between November 2017 and January 2018. The nurses appraised their own emotions, but they were not sure that appraised others' emotions, regulated their and others' emotions. They could cope with new ideas and faced obstacles. Most of the nurses were moderately stressed. Those nurses were not able to regulate their own emotions were determined to have a higher level of perceived stress. Active coping, positive reframing and acceptance were the most prevalent coping mechanisms. The investigation showed that others' emotion appraisal was a predictor for selfblame reaction, and emotion utilization was the predictor for positive reframing and selfblame.