Purpose: The purpose of this paper is three-fold: first, to assess nurse satisfaction levels with working environment (known as favourability) in five Greek public hospitals using the practice environment scale (PES); second, to compare perceptions among nurses employed in surgical and medical departments; and third, to examine relationships between perceptions and nurse educational level and experience.
Design/methodology/approach: In total, 532 nurses from five major public hospitals in Greece completed the PES. Descriptive statistics, t-tests and Spearman correlations were employed to analyse the data.
Findings: Nurses perceived their work settings as unfavourable in all five hospitals, with collegial nurse-physician relations emerging as the only positive factor. Compared to medical wards, surgical departments emerged as slightly more positive working environments. Work department notwithstanding, in some cases, education and experience levels affected their perceptions on management, poor care quality, limited nurse involvement in hospital affairs and nursing shortage.
Practical implications: Hospital managers do not provide sufficient support for Greek nurses in their working environments.
Originality/value: The authors attempted to evaluate nursing practice environments in Greek hospitals, viewed from nurse perspectives. The authors identified insufficient support for nurses' working in these hospitals.
Keywords: Care quality; Evaluation; Favourability; Greek hospitals; Nursing practice environment.