Emergency department healthcare workers are among the highest at risk groups for workplace violence. Research indicates the majority of emergency department nurses do not feel safe in their workplace. A quantitative cross sectional study using a self-administered survey tool was conducted to examine if emergency department nurses' perceptions of safety are affected by the physical environment of the emergency department. The study was conducted over a period of six weeks among a sampling of emergency department nurses from seven hospitals within a Midwestern regional area. Although there are various reasons for workplace violence, this study focused on emergency department registered nurses' perceptions of safety from workplace violence as they relate to the physical environment of the emergency department. Descriptive statistics revealed emergency department physical environmental safety factors vary from few to many among different hospitals. Descriptive statistics also showed most emergency department nurses feel the emergency department physical environment affects their safety; however, there was not enough evidence to support a statistical significant relationship between the respondent's answers to the physical environment questions and their answers to the nurses' perceptions of safety questions. The study found the type and amount of physical environmental safety factors had little effect on emergency department nurses' perceptions of safety.