Occupational stress in health professionals has been a current topic of debate and research in the last few years, showing that nurses represent a professional class particularly exposed to high levels of stress, with severe effects on individual's health. However there is limited research in Portuguese nurses concerning the characteristics that underline the expression of psychological distress. This study explores the role of personal and professional variables on nurses mental health status. To determine the risk factors associated with clinical symptomatology of distress, a logistic regression analysis was conducted. Personal variables were introduced in the first two steps and professional variables in the last step. Due to its significance in previous analyses, we considered as sociodemographic variables, gender, having/or not a hobby and the practice/or not of physical exercise, and as professional variable the type of workplace. The final model reveals that physical exercise and hobby became important predictors of nurses' clinical symptoms. Despite the necessity of further investigation, findings highlight the importance of leisure activities for nurses' mental health status, giving relevance to the need of implementing healthy life styles.