Patients have a right to receive quality care by competent nurses and midwives who practise in a safe environment” (NMBI 2014) Critically discuss how nurses and midwives through their leadership/management, quality improvement initiatives and appropriate information management systems can contribute to quality care.

Maintaining a safe environment reflects a level of compassion and vigilance for patient welfare that is as important as any other aspect of competent health care. The way to improve safety is to learn about causes of error and use this knowledge to design systems of care to “… make errors less common and less harmful when they do occur”). As a result, researchers, policymakers, and providers have intensified their efforts to understand and change organizational conditions, components, and processes of health care systems as they relate to patient safety.

Health care is the second-fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy, and nursing is the largest occupation within the industry, with more than 2.4 million jobs and the highest projected growth. As noted in recent reports by the International Council of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine, one of the reasons for the current and future shortages of nurses relates to the work environment. Improving the environment in which nurses work may attract new students to nursing as well as engage current professionals in developing innovative models of care delivery that will help retain and nurture future generations of nurses. Most important, improving the work environment may also improve the quality and safety of patient care.