NHS staff wellbeing has a direct impact on patients' experience of healthcare, a study by the National Nursing Research Unit suggests.
The three-year study found that when staff felt they had good co-workers, organisational support and low emotional exhaustion, patient experiences were generally better.
As a result it urged NHS organisations to target departments with poor staff wellbeing.
National Nursing Research Unit director Jill Maben said while the link between the experience of staff and the quality of health care provided might appear self-evident, research had previously been limited: "This study strongly suggests that patient experiences are better when staff feel they have a good working environment, support from co-workers and their manager and low emotional exhaustion.
"These findings are significant and demonstrate that staff wellbeing is an antecedent, not a consequence, of patient care performance. Thus seeking systematically to enhance staff wellbeing is not only important in its own right but also for the quality of patient experiences."
The report, which was funded by a National Institute for Health Research programme drew on over 200 hours of direct care observation, patient focus groups, surveys and interviews with staff at all levels of the organisation.
It encouraged NHS organisations to look for signs of poor staff wellbeing, such as high sickness-absence, reports of bullying or disciplinary issues, as well as targeting areas of low patient experience.
