Objective To investigate the status of occupational safety protection-related cognition and behaviors among nurses.

Methods We recruited 340 nurses in 3 grade A tertiary hospitals in Shenyang city of Liaoning province for a self-administered survey during February – October 2018. A self-designed questionnaire on basic, psychological, physical/chemical, and pathophysiological protection for occupational safety was adopted in the survey.

Results For the nurses with professional working experience of ≤ 5 years and > 5 years, 54.20% and 69.61% had an excellent score for cognition and 45.29.% and 71.56% had an excellent score for behaviors about occupational safety protection, with significant differences in the proportions between the two groups (both P < 0.05). The nurses with the professional working experience of > 5 years had significantly higher occupational safety-related cognition domain scores for both basic and physical/chemical protection and behavior domain scores for psychological and physical/chemical protection compared to the nurses with the professional working experience of ≤ 5 years (P < 0.05 for all).

Conclusion The occupational safety protection-related cognition and behaviors are at a lower level among the nurses with shorter professional working experience than among those with longer professional working experience.