Objective To explore the status and relationships among nurses′ job demands, recovery experience and work engagement. Methods Totally 331 nurses were investigated using the Nurse′s Job Demands Scale, Recovery Experience Questionnaire and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9. Results The nurses′ total score of job demands was 55.26±6.47, work engagement was 42.24±6.41, and recovery experience was 50.72±8.77. The score of work engagement negatively correlated with the score of job demands, and positively correlated with the score of recovery experience （P＜0.01 for both）. The structural equation model showed that, job demands and recovery experience predicted nurses′ work engagement directly,and job demands predicted work engagement indirectly by restoring the intermediary role of recovery experience （P＜0.01 for both）. Conclusion Nurses′ job demands is high, while their recovery experience and work engagement are unideal. Nurses′ work engagement could be improved via reducing job demands and conducting recovery experience training.