This master thesis is based on the international project Nurse Forecasting in Europe (RN4CAST). A pilot study was conducted at the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana in order to establish whether the perception of nurses' work environment is connected to the patient safety culture in the hospital and the quality of patient care and whether the perception of the work environment differs according to the nurses' level of education. We were also interested in the comparability of our results with aforementioned European study.
A quantitative research method was used and data was collected by surveying nurses using a questionnaire from European study Nurse Forecasting in Europe, for which we had previously obtained consent, and it was translated using the reverse translation method. The study was conducted at six randomly selected clinical departments of University Medical Centre Ljubljana, and 270 nurses were included in the study.
The findings of the pilot study are comparable to the findings of the European study and confirm the connection between nurses' perception of the work environment and patient safety and healthcare quality. They also confirm the fact that the education of nursing staff influences their perception of the work environment.
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