Assessment of safety status by audit method in student dormitories of Kashan University of Medical Sciences (2017)

Aims: Dormitories as the second home of students are very decisive in increasing their academic quality. Unfortunately, dormitories of the universities in Iran are not safe due to a large number of causes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the level of safety of the dormitories at Kashan University of Medical Sciences using the audit method. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted by the safety audit checklist at Kashan University of Medical Sciences. The checklists were completed by observation, interviewing, and document control. The safety status index (SSI) was then used to evaluate the safety of the student dormitories. The SSI was then graded based on the three scales of undesirable (below 50), moderate (50–75), and desirable (above 75). Results: According to the results, the highest percentage of noncompliance with the safety dimensions and the different parts of the dormitory building was related to the safety signs (99.12%) and warehouse (83.95%), respectively. Furthermore, the lowest percentage of noncompliance with the safety dimensions was related to housekeeping and surface safety and public safety (33.3%). Such a noncompliance was related to staircases (53.84%) in different parts of the dormitory building. Conclusion: This study showed that the safety was not desirable in the dormitories studied. Therefore, it is recommended that a safety and health management system should be established to both improve the level of safety and eliminate the deficiencies in the student dormitories.