As a global safety movement gathers momentum, experts call for a "systems approach" to improve the safety of today's health care environments. Yet, what kinds of systems theories should guide the field of patient safety research? In this paper, it is argued that nurses and other health professionals can use theory and principles from the field of ecological restoration, which is the repair of damaged ecosystems, to study and strengthen the safety of health care environments around the world. When we use restoration science to theorize about health care systems, we develop the ability to think ecologically about our relations with each other and with the environments we share. As we integrate knowledge of restoration science with nurses' knowledge and other knowledge in health care, we may actually create safer health care systems for all at a human and material cost that we are able and willing to pay.
ecology; patient safety research; systems theory; health facility environment