More than three quarters of nurses questioned said they had witnessed "poor" care in their ward or unit in the past year, with nearly 30% saying they regularly saw poor care.
The survey also found nearly half of those who worked on general medical wards said the ratio of registered nurses to unqualified healthcare assistants was either 50:50 or worse. Of those who had witnessed poor care, nearly 30% said they had seen it happen regularly.
Some 85% of those who worked on general wards said the patient to nurse ratio was eight or more to one, and 44% said the ratio was 10 or more to one.
Speaking yesterday to BBC Radio Five Live, Jenni Middleton, editor of the Nursing Times, said morale was very low among nurses.
"If you've gone into that job to care and to look after people and to not be able to do that is heartbreaking and very very stressful because you feel you're incapable of doing what you've been trained to do because you don't have the resources to back you up," Middleton said.
Dean Royles, director of the NHS Employers organisation, said: "Mandatory staffing levels can not guarantee safe care.
"We do not believe that imposing a crude system of staffing ratios is the right way to tackle poor care.
"Each NHS hospital and service has different demands on its services. Arbitrary ratios could limit organisations' ability to plan care in a way that is best for the patient and limits the way we use the skills of other staff like physiotherapists occupational therapists that provide essential care."
Royles added: "The last thing we want is a minimum standard becoming a ceiling rather than a floor."
NHS Confederation, chief executive, Mike Farrar, said: "Staffing levels may well be an issue in some parts of some hospitals, but it is not the case that we need more nurses everywhere.
"A better response would be to ensure we get four things right - the right staffing pattern and skill mix for each service, recruitment of NHS staff based more on their values, better training for nurses at the ward leader level, and ensure nurses operate in organisations that value compassion and care.
"It is critical that at a local level, we empower senior clinicians and managers to take greater responsibility for setting high standards of care, including determining the right staffing pattern for delivering these standards for their patients."
Nursing Times, the weekly magazine for nurses in the UK, conducted the online poll of 600 of its readers on issues such as patient safety, NHS culture and staffing.
