Introduction The safety and quality of patient care are basic guidelines in finding new and improved solutions in nursing. Important and influential factors shape the nurses’ work environment in hospitals. Purpose With the study, we intended to investigate whether the perception of nurses’ work environment is related to the safety culture and the quality of patient care and whether it differs according to nurses’ level of education. Methods of work The study with a quantitative research method was conducted at the six clinical departments of the University Medical Centre, Ljubljana in 2019. We used a survey questionnaire from the European survey Nurse forecasting in Europe (RN4CAST). Results 270 nurses were included in the study. The response rate was 54%. The study confirmed that there is a correlation between the assessment of the nurses’ work environment and the general assessment of patient safety (r = 0.36; p <0.001), the general assessment of the quality of nursing care (r = 0.32; p <0.001), the confidence in patient self-care at discharge (r = 0.29; p <0.001) and the quality of patient care in the previous year (r = 0.27; p = 0.001). The results showed frequent verbal abuse of nurses, in 44.9% by patients and their relatives and in 35.4% by staff. Graduate nurses rated the work environment more negatively than healthcare technicians (p = 0.003). Discussion and conclusion We confirmed the correlation between the assessment of nurses’ work environment and patient safety and the quality of health care, and that employees’ education influences the assessment and perception of the work environment.