Analysis of laboratory safety culture in the university: a case study

Objectives. The research purpose of this article was to investigate the status of laboratory safety culture in universities, in order to carry out more targeted laboratory cultural construction activities in the later stage. Safety culture also can have a lasting impact on university students as future practitioners. Methods. With Southeast University as a case study, a sample of 8761 study participants completed the safety culture measurement questionnaire (SCMQ). The independent-sample t test, single-factor analysis of variance and multilevel logistic regression were used to analyze the general characteristic distribution of the safety culture level. Results. The overall average score of safety culture was 74.84. Among the 32 elements of safety culture, six elements scored less than 60 points. Multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that the distribution of safety culture scores varied across schools, work roles, genders, years of laboratory use and laboratory safety culture familiarity. Conclusions. University laboratories should strengthen the construction of safety culture, for the safety elements with low scores, and intervene from the organizational level (school level). The key focus groups were males, students and those who have used the laboratory for 2-4 years, and those with low awareness of safety culture.