Background: Nursing, as one of the most critical professions in the healthcare system, entails continuous exposure to psychological, physical, and emotional demands. Nurses’ direct and ongoing interaction with patients and their families places them at high risk of job burnout a psychosocial syndrome that not only threatens their personal health but also adversely affects the quality of care, patient satisfaction, and organizational productivity.

Objective: This study aimed to explore and identify organizational factors contributing to job burnout among nurses working in hospitals in Tehran, Iran.

Method: The research employed a qualitative design using the Grounded Theory approach based on Strauss and Corbin’s systematic model (1998). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 nurses and head nurses, and analyzed using MAXQDA software in three stages: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. In the open coding phase, 212 initial codes were extracted and categorized into 18 subcategories and six main categories.

Findings: The findings indicated that several organizational factors—including heavy workload, staff shortages, ineffective management, insufficient payment and reward systems, organizational discrimination, and weak administrative structures—were the most influential conditions leading to burnout. Within the axial coding process, these factors were organized into causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. In the selective coding stage, the core category was identified as: “Organizational dissatisfaction resulting from the imbalance between job demands and supportive resources.” Burnout manifested in three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, alongside organizational consequences such as reduced quality of care, decreased productivity, and an increased tendency to leave the profession.

Conclusion: The study highlights that nurses’ job burnout in Tehran hospitals is primarily rooted in organizational shortcomings rather than individual traits. Addressing this issue requires strategic interventions, including revising workload distribution, improving the nurse-to-patient ratio, enhancing managerial support, promoting organizational justice, and reforming payment systems. The results can inform health policymakers and hospital administrators in developing effective strategies to improve nurses’ working conditions and, consequently, the quality of healthcare services.