Objectives: Managers’ personalities indicate how they think, perceive reality, and relate to others; these qualities affecttheir decision making and problem-solving methods. Although there are many studies of leadership and managerialcharacteristics in the nursing profession, there is a lack of adequate data about personality characteristics. This descriptive study aims to determine the personal characteristics of nurse managers and the personal and professional factorsthat affect them.Methods: The study population consisted of nurses working in administrative positions at hospitals affiliated with thepublic hospitals union, in research, and in practice hospitals affiliated with universities and private hospitals in cities inthe Marmara Region. The final study sample consisted of nurse managers working in the hospitals that gave permissionto conduct the study (excluding the private branch hospitals). The data were collected after obtaining the approval ofthe Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Approval date: 1.7.2015, Decision No:2015-01) and written official permission from the administrations of the hospitals included in the study. The data werecollected using the Five Factor Personality Inventory. The data analysis was carried out using means and standard deviations (SD) as descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance for inter-group comparisons, and the independentsamples t-test for paired group comparisons. A significance threshold of p<0.05 was used to evaluate the findings.Results: The study included 900 nurse managers; they obtained the highest mean score on the conscientiousness dimension (Mean±SD=4.22±0.35). This dimension was followed by their mean scores on the agreeableness(Mean±SD=4.06±0.40), intelligence (Mean±SD=4.05±0.37), extroversion (Mean±SD=3.50±0.43), and emotional instability (Mean±SD=2.07±0.53) dimensions. Statistically significant differences were found between the independent variables of age, gender, marital status, education level, work institution, professional experience, institutional experience,managerial experience, administrative position, work unit, and managerial education when compared using the fivefactor personality inventory (p<0.05).Conclusion: The nurse managers described themselves as being highly conscientious. Statistically significant differences were found between the five-factor personality inventory mean scores and personal and professional characteristics.