Knowledge and Attitudes of First Aid and Basic Life Support Among Public School Teachers in Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Objective: This study aims to address the knowledge gap in first aid and basic life support (BLS) among teachers, expand the targeted schools to elementary and intermediate schools for boys and girls, and develop clear, focused recommendations. Furthermore, to assess the knowledge, skills, and attitude of BLS among schoolteachers in Qassim, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the school year of 2022 to 2023. In Buraidah city and the Uyun AlJiwa and Asyah governorates of Qassim, there are a total of 906 elementary and intermediate schools employing 12,057 teachers (5447 males and 6610 females). A stratified random sampling method was used with a self-administered Arabic questionnaire. This questionnaire included multiple parts (sociodemographic data, previous training status, knowledge and skill of BLS, and assessment of the following: attitude to learn and practice CPR; barriers to performing CPR; the presence or lack of previous resuscitation experience in BLS). Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Categorical variables were described by frequency and percentage, while continuous variables were described by mean & PLUSMN; SD. A normality test showed that the total knowledge and skills scale was not normally distributed. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the mean knowledge and skills scale across variables. The accepted level of significance was below 0.05 (p <0.05). Results: Our study included 482 participants. Only 19.5% (94) had previous CPR training, and 80.9% (76) were trained more than two years prior to this study's data collection. The main reason for participants' fears of applying BLS was the lack of proper knowledge and skills (48.1%). The majority of the teachers, i.e., 71.0% (342), wanted more training in CPR, and 41.1% (198) thought CPR training should be mandatory at school. We found no statistical relationship between attitude toward training and the city or differences in knowledge and skills scores due to the difference in sociodemographic characteristics. Also, we found no statistical relationship between the question 'Did you observe CPR on a collapsed patient?' and the city, meaning that the observation of CPR on collapsed patients is independent of the respondent's school location. Significant differences in skills scores were found between those who had CPR observation and those who did not (p = 0.014), in knowledge scores between those who had previous CPR training and those who did not (p = 0.034), and in skills scores between those who had previous CPR training and those who did not (p <0.001). We found no significant differences in knowledge and skills scores according to the place of previous CPR training (p = 0.163 and p = 0.695, respectively). Conclusion: This study reveals that knowledge and skills in BLS among schoolteachers need to be improved. For this reason, we emphasize the inclusion of International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) recommendations in the curriculum and that they are made periodic and mandatory for teachers. Especially as we found teachers to have a positive attitude and were willing to train and help.