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Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses identifies solutions to problems in hospital, nursing home, and other health care organization work environments that threaten patient safety through their effect on nursing care.

A companion to the Institute of Medicine's earlier patient safety report, To Err is Human, the report puts forth a blueprint of actions that all health care organizations which rely on nurses should take.

The report's findings and recommendations address the related issues of management practices, workforce capability, work design, and organizational safety culture. Actions needed from the federal and state governments, as well as from coalitions of parties involved in shaping the work environments of nurses also are specified.

The report presents evidence from health services, behavioral and organizational research, and human factors and engineering to address pressing public policy questions, including nurse staffing levels, nurse work hours, and mandatory overtime.

Copyright © 2004 by the National Academy of Sciences.