Nurse working environment and patient safety: A review

Ratna Puji Priyanti — 2026-03-30

Patient safety remains a global priority, and nurses—who deliver most direct patient care—play a pivotal role in preventing errors. The quality of the nursing work environment (e.g. staffing, leadership, teamwork) has been increasingly linked to patient safety outcomes in recent years. However, a comprehensive synthesis of the recent evidence is lacking. To systematically review studies (2019–2024) examining the association between nurses’ work environment and patient safety in hospital settings. We searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library using PICO terms (nurses AND work/practice environment AND patient safety) over the past five years . We included peer?reviewed empirical studies on hospital nurses, published 2019–2024, in English, that measured nurse work environment factors and patient safety outcomes or perceptions. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full texts, extracted data, and appraised study quality. Fourteen studies met inclusion. This review of recent evidence confirms that the nurse work environment strongly influences patient safety in hospitals. We organized results into five themes: Staffing and Resource Adequacy; Leadership, Participation, and Professional Commitment; Teamwork, Communication, and Psychological Safety; Occupational Stress and Workload; Missed Nursing Care and Adverse Events. A healthier nurse work environment robustly correlates with safer patient care. These findings suggest that improving staffing, managerial support, teamwork, and reducing nurse stress are likely to enhance patient safety. Health leaders should view nurse work conditions as a critical patient-safety intervention. Future research should test interventions and longitudinal effects to confirm causality.

Occupational health and environmental risk management: integrating occupational health, industrial hygiene, environmental safety, and emergency response

Devanda Faiqh Albyn — 2026-03-30

Occupational health and environmental risk management provides an integrated approach to preventing work-related injury and disease, controlling hazardous exposures, protecting the surrounding environment, and maintaining organizational resilience during emergencies. This manuscript synthesizes the conceptual and professional content of the source document into an academic framework encompassing occupational health, industrial hygiene, environmental and safety management, and emergency response. A narrative thematic method was used to organize the source material and its cited references into five analytical domains: the risk management cycle, functional differentiation among professional teams, environmental and social impacts, professional competencies, and emergency preparedness. The synthesis indicates that effective risk management requires systematic hazard identification, risk assessment, control according to the hierarchy of controls, and continuous monitoring. Occupational health services primarily manage worker health outcomes, fitness for work, health surveillance, and case management, whereas industrial hygiene focuses on recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace exposures. Environmental and safety professionals extend this system to pollution prevention, legal compliance, incident investigation, and management-system integration. Emergency Response Teams provide the operational capacity to contain fires, chemical releases, serious injuries, and other acute events before they escalate. The findings further show that these functions should not operate in isolation; their integration supports stronger governance, more reliable exposure control, improved worker well-being, and better environmental and social performance. Professional development should therefore combine clinical, technical, managerial, communication, and emergency-response competencies. An integrated governance model is recommended in which occupational health, industrial hygiene, environmental safety, and emergency response share risk information, surveillance findings, control priorities, and performance indicators.

Journal of Occupational Safety and Health

Nurse working environment and patient safety: A review

Occupational health and environmental risk management: integrating occupational health, industrial hygiene, environmental safety, and emergency response