Hospital nurses' work environment, quality of care provided and career plans

In several European countries, the availability of qualified nurses is insufficient to meet current healthcare requirements. Nurses are highly dissatisfied with the rising demands of the healthcare environment and increasingly considering leaving their jobs.

The study aims to investigate the relationships between the characteristics of hospital nurses' work environment and the quality of care provided, and furthermore to examine Dutch nurses' career plans.

A cross-sectional, questionnaire survey of registered nurses (n = 334) working in the academic and district hospitals was conducted in 2005/2006. Previously validated questionnaires translated into the participants' language were used. Factor and regression analysis were used for data analysis.

Overall, nurses rated their work environment rather favourably. Five work environment characteristics were identified: support for professional development, adequate staffing, nursing competence, supportive management and teamwork. Significant relationships were found between nurses' perceptions of their work environment characteristics and quality of care provided and nurses' career plans. When work environment characteristics were evaluated to be better, nurse-assessed quality of care also increased and intentions to leave current job decreased linearly.

Study findings suggest that nurses' perceptions of their work environment are important for nurse outcomes in hospital settings. Further research is needed to explore the predictive ability of the work environment for nurse, patient and organizational outcomes in hospitals.