Improving the work environment for nurses is critical for good quality of care for patients and retention of the nursing workforce. This paper reports on a survey of 13, 620 nurses from each province and territory in Canada. The purpose of the research survey was to describe nurses' perspectives regarding factors in their work environments that influence the nature and effectiveness of their care. Other related issues such as education, career, health, safety, lifestyle, and job characteristics were also explored. A variety of scales with good psychometric properties were used in this survey. Data were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). Key findings indicate that a higher risk of medical errors was positively associated with overtime hours, working more than a 12 hour shift or greater than 40 hours per week. Strong nursing leadership resulted in lower risk of medical error. The risk of poor quality of care and failure to complete nursing interventions was more likely in long term care settings and in settings with less nurse empowerment, fewer resources and when the units were over census. Interventions were more likely to be completed in the community sector and when nurses rated themselves as mentally healthy on the SF 12. Nurses reported being less physically healthy when required to complete involuntary overtime, and when there was job instability and violence on the unit. Higher risk for poor mental health was associated with violence in the workplace and more than 2 shift changes in a two week period. Nurses were more likely to make a worker's compensation claim when they worked on units that were under-resourced and when they worked overtime. The findings of this study can be used by nurses and their managers to create interventions to improve the work environment and related patient nurse and system outcomes.