Introduction:

The work environment of hospital nurses and its impact on results have not been explored in Colombia. This research seeks to describe the characteristics of the work environment of nurses in a Colombian public hospital and to determine their association with sociodemographic characteristics and with results for the nurse, the patient and the institution.

Method:

Exploratory descriptive study. The 139 clinical nurses from the institution were invited to participate. The form was sent by RedCap, with sociodemographic and employment questions, the ENLASA-Nursing instrument, and results questions. Frequencies and percentages were obtained from the sociodemographic and employment data. The Dalenius-Hodges method was used to determine the score in which the healthy work environment was considered. To analyze the associations between sociodemographic and occupational characteristics, ENLASA-Nursing scores, and outcomes, the contingency coefficient, Phi, and Cramer's V were used.

Results:

The response rate was 84%. The overall score suggests that the work environment is healthy. The dimension of organizational structural components is considered unhealthy (58.3048/100); that of organizational processes is considered healthy (68.1256/100). The subdimensions with the lowest scores were: human resources policies (62.2960/100), nursing resource planning (42.9487), and remuneration (52.7778). In the organizational process dimension, clinical autonomy obtained the lowest and the only score that classifies it as an unhealthy aspect (52.6709).

Conclusions:

There is a need to promote healthy work environments, work on policies and planning of human resources in nursing, and advance research on this matter, to support national and organizational policy decisions.

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