First Aid free essay sample

Abstract Objective Children can be the only persons present in an emergency situation. Aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of a first aid course for 4-5-year-old kindergarten children given by a first aid instructor and kindergarten teachers. Methods A mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to investigate the effects of teaching first aid in the kindergarten in the present study. Kindergarten children at the age of 4-5 years were included in a pilot-study, 5 girls and 5 boys. Three of them were four years and seven were five years old. Two months after completion of the first aid course children were tested in a scenario where the children had to provide first aid to an unconscious victim after a cycle accident. The next seven months the children were followed by participant observation. Results The findings suggest that 4-5-year-old children are able to learn and apply basic first aid. We will write a custom essay sample on First Aid or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Tested two months after course completion 70% of the children assessed consciousness correctly and knew the correct emergency telephone number; 60% showed correct assessment of breathing and 40% of the participants accomplished the other tasks (giving correct emergency call information, knowledge of correct recovery position, correct airway management) correctly. Many of the children showed their capabilities to do so in a first aid scenario although some participants showed fear of failure in the test scenario. In an informal group testing most of these children could perform first aid measures, too. Teaching first aid also lead to more active helping behaviour and increased empathy in the children. Conclusion Kindergarten children aged 4-5 years can learn basic fist aid. First aid training should start in the kindergarten. Introduction and background Laypersons are an important factor for saving lives in emergency situations. According to Eisenburger and Safar Life-Supporting First-Aid (LSFA) should be part of basic health education and all persons from the age of 10 should learn LSFA-skills including Basic Life-Support (BLS) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) [1]. One important barrier and main concern of laypersons about giving first aid to acute ill or injured people is the fear to make mistakes. In Austria 68% of the participants of a study (n = 597) stated that they would not provide first aid because they feared to do something wrong [2]. Several studies have shown a clear relationship between the level of first aid training and the quality of first aid measures provided [2-4]. This underlines the importance of first aid training for the public. Unfortunately first aid training does not increase the rate of helping [4]. Therefore the motivation to help others is paramount and the helping rate can probably be increased by first aid courses that include strategies to overcome inhibitors of emergency helping behaviour [4]. There are many examples of children who have provided first aid measures or saved lives by recognizing life-threatening emergency situations in the media. In a number of cases small children have saved the life of a parent at home just by giving an emergency call and informing the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) or the Fire Department. In a recent case from Germany a four-year-old girl saved the life of her 31-year-old mother, who suffered from hypoglycaemia by calling for help at night-time [5]. This case illustrates that a young child can be the only person present in case of an emergency and that first aid education therefore should start as early as feasible. Several authors have documented that school children can learn and provide first aid and life supporting first aid measures and have advocated that primary school children should learn first aid in school [6-9]. An own study of primary school children demonstrated that 6-7-year-old children can give basic first aid to an unconscious patient and that a first aid course with 5 lessons leads to a significant increase in both first aid knowledge and skills [8]. This course included airway management and application of the recovery position. The conclusion from this study was that primary school children should receive first aid training starting in the first grade [8]. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a first aid course for 4-5-year-old kindergarten children given by a first aid instructor and kindergarten teachers. Methods A mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to investigate the effect of teaching first aid in the kindergarten in the present study [10]. The mixed methods approach combined quantitative data from testing the participants in a test scenario and qualitative data derived from field notes taken in the kindergarten. They were taken during the course and the following seven months after the course to investigate the effects of first aid training on the childrens behaviour in everyday life. The field notes were written and collected by two kindergarten teachers who both actively participated in teaching first aid to the children in the study group. The methods used for the qualitative part of the study and data analysis were qualitative description and qualitative content analysis [11]. The main reason for using mixed methods in this pilot study was to provide a bigger and richer picture of the effects first aid teaching has on the children in the kindergarten. Field notes help to show which effects the training had besides the effects on practical skills and knowledge, which were quantitatively tested in a first aid scenario. Another reason was to compare the findings from the quantitative and the qualitative approaches. The study group received a first aid teaching program consisting of 6 lessons (30-40 minutes each). The course was lead by the first author who is first aid instructor, paramedic and anaesthesiologist with more than 25 years experience in teaching first aid and more than 15 years in teaching first aid to children. In every lesson one kindergarten teacher worked as assistant instructor. A glove puppet was used to ease the contact to the children. A new lesson was performed once a week. The teaching program was similar to that used in a previous study on primary school children aged 6-7 years [8]. It was adapted to the needs and abilities of 4-5-year-old children to introduce elementary knowledge of first aid. Figure 1 shows children practicing first aid during the course. Figure 1. Children performing first aid. The main difference between the present course and the course used before [8] was that the present course consisted of 6 lessons instead of 5 and that the duration of the lessons was shorter (30-40 min). This was changed due to the different capacity to pay attention for a longer time. The curriculum of the teaching program included basic first aid knowledge and was almost the same as in a previous study on primary school children [8]. The course curriculum is shown in additional file 1. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation including mouth-to-mouth/mouth-to-nose breathing, chest compressions and  defibrillation were not part of the course. An important part of the teaching was learning the five-finger-rule to basic first aid (additional file 2). Additional file 1. Course curriculum. Format: DOC Size: 23KB Download file This file can be viewed with: Microsoft Word Viewer Additional file 2. The five-finger-rule to basic first aid. Format: DOC Size: 23KB Download file This file can be viewed with: Microsoft Word Viewer Testing was based on the same scenario as used in our previous study [8], where the children had to assist an unconscious child involved in a bicycle accident without any help from others. The instructor told the tested children A friend of yours has fallen from the bicycle and hurt his head. He is lying still on the ground and does not move. What are you going to do? Questions from the children were not answered and no other help was given in order to accomplish the first aid measures. The children had to decide and to act on their own. One child played an unconscious victim. Children from the study group were tested two months after course participation. The childrens performances in a first aid scenario were registered as tasks accomplished or not. Tested items are shown in table