Objectives To evaluate and compare the perspective of the organisational climate in Brazilian nurses who work in the hospital and in the Primary Health Care (ABS).

Method This is a quantitative, cross-sectional and comparative study, realised with 36 nurses who work in the north coast of São Paulo (Brazil). Data were collected in 2015 through the socio-demographic and professional characterisation questionnaire, and the Organisational Climate Scale for Health Organisations.

Results Among 36 nurses in the study, 83.3% were women, mean age 39,4 years. The average time of work in the current job is 5.3 years and 11.1% of them have other job. As for the work place, 15 (41.7%) work in hospital ( medium-sized hospital) and 21 (58.3%) work in The Primary Health Care, which are: Health Strategy, Basic Health Units, Outpatient specialties. In the perception of nurses, the organisational climate (score 1–5) was evaluated with the following averages: Liderança (3.37); Professional development (2.95); Relationship and spirit of staff (4.01); Relationship with Community (3.28); Safety at work (2.52); Strategy (2.74) and Incomes (2.30). When comparing the means of the dimensions of organisational climate perceptions of hospital nurses with the Primary Care, the Student’s t test showed significant difference for Safety (p-value = 0.032) and Income (p-value = 0.046). The hospital's nurses have better scores to these factors.

Conclusion In the perception of nurses on the organisational climate, the lowest scores were assigned to Income, Safety and Strategy, respectively. Nurses who work in the Primary Health Care got lower scores to the Compensation and Safety at Work as compared to nurses working in hospital, showing the need for intervention in this work place.