Introduction:
Nursing and midwifery require mental immunity, resistance to stress and the ability to cope with difficulties. Optimism has positive influence on the physical condition. It helps being successful in life and resisting stressful events. It is also closely connected with emotinal functioning.

Materials and methods:
The research was carried out on fifty nurses and midwives, the “Ethics in nursing” training participants. Their optimism was measured by Poprawa and Juczyński’s adaptation of the Life Orientation Test – LOT-R. The emotions were measured by Juczyński’s adaptation of Courtauld Emotional Control Scale – CECS. Additionally, the author’s demographic data questionnaire form was used. It included questions about the education level, marital status and the number of children. The hypotheses were verified by Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Test, the Mann-Whitney Rank Test and the Kruskal-Wallis Test.

Results:
The research proved the influence of optimism on the emotional control. It showed how education and having a family affect the level of optimism and emotional control.

Conclusions:
Optimism functions as protection and effectively influences the ability to express emotions. Optimistic attitude is higher among nurses and midwives with a college degree, which does not affect the expression of emotions. Marital status and the number of kids do not influence the level of optimism or the ability to express emotions.