Assessing graduate student perceptions of safety in the Department of Chemistry at UC Davis

Abstract

Results from a survey that was distributed to the graduate students in the Department of Chemistry at UC Davis are presented and discussed. The survey sought to gauge graduate student perception of safety culture in their department and individual labs following the 2012 UC settlement agreement. Most of the respondents indicated that they felt their lab had a positive safety culture. A clear correlation between research discipline and perceived hazard level was identified. Respondents indicated that a lack of clear expectations and safety knowledge were the biggest barriers to improving safety culture. Informal lab-wide safety discussion was identified as one of the best ways to improve safety culture, however, one-third of respondents indicated that they had relatively infrequent safety discussions and one-half of respondents indicated that they never discuss incidents or near-misses in a group-wide setting. This survey indicates that while the settlement agreement has had a positive impact on safety in the Department of Chemistry at UC Davis, key improvements could be made to further strengthen safety culture.