Background: Nurses are striving to introduce safe quality patient care mainly in stressful
environments involving intensive care units which could impact the nurses' perceived workplace
safety and affect nurses' performance. Aim: To assess the safety work climate and performance
limitations among intensive care nurses in two settings. Research design: A comparative-
correlation design was used. Setting: The study was conducted in intensive care units at Tanta
Main University Hospital and Itay Elbaroud General Hospital. Subjects: 216 intensive care
nurses were included. Tools: Two tools were used to collect the data; Tool I: Intensive Care
Nurses' Safety Climate Questionnaire. Tool II: Intensive Care Nurses' Performance Limitations
Questionnaire. Results: 50.9% of intensive care nurses at Tanta Main University Hospital and
71.8% of intensive care nurses from Itay Elbaroud General Hospital had low levels of perceived
safety work climate. The intensive care nurses who worked at Tanta Main University Hospital
faced higher performance limitations (53.91%) than intensive care nurses at Itay Elbaroud
General Hospital who faced lower performance limitations (30.61%). Conclusion: There were
negative correlations between the total IC nurses' work safety climate and the total IC nurses'
performance limitations at the two hospitals. Recommendations: The hospital management at
both hospitals needs to regularly assess nurses' perceived workplace safety and performance
limitations to explore the weaknesses and plan for improvement.