Goals: to identify the advantages and the difficulties present in the teaching work of nursing; and analyze the impact of the work context of the nursing school in the health-disease process of these workers. Methods: this is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research that was developed in a public university of Rio de Janeiro. The subjects were 16 teachers of nursing. The data collection occurred from July to August 2014 by semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed by means of thematic content analysis technique. Results: there are more situations that hinder the work than that favor it, and those complicating situations are closely linked to a neo-liberal policy. Conclusion: It was learned that the configuration of the teaching work negatively affects health, resulting in stress, fatigue and physical and emotional overload. It is necessary that the worker's health services develop actions that neutralize the negative effects on the health-disease process of teachers.