First Aid education in the opinion of secondary school students

The European Resuscitation Council guidelines recommend First Aid education at all levels of schooling. Schools should prepare students for the challenges of the contemporary world, including First Aid assistance in cases of casualties and crisis response, to ensure their own safety as well as that of victims and witnesses. The present study aims to evaluate First Aid classes for secondary schools students and the correlation with acquired knowledge regarding conduct under conditions of an imminent threat to health or life. The study included 500 people: secondary school students of second forms, second and third classes of technical colleges and university students of various faculties in the Lublin province. This paper uses a diagnostic survey and employs a specially developed questionnaire. Questions in the survey were constructed on the basis of the European Resuscitation Council Guidelines of 2010. More than half its respondents (55.8%) assessed First Aid lessons as quite interesting. Statistical analysis showed that people who have assessed classes as having better quality were statistically more likely to know that everyone has the obligation to provide First Aid (p = 0.00001) and more likely to have given such assistance (p < 0.00001). The study indicates that respondents assessing conducted classes in First Aid as interesting more often gave correct answers to questions about First Aid (p < 0.05). After analyzing the results of the study, it was shown that most students are satisfied with the First Aid classes at their school. Furthermore, the classes used phantoms and had a practical nature. Among students assessing First Aid classes as "well and very well" led, a greater level of knowledge regarding the recognition of cardiac arrest and performing resuscitation was ascertained. This suggests that such young people turn more often to rescue operations, taking into account both their own safety and that of the victim. It is desirable to continue further investigation into diversification of teaching methods, to increase both the number of hours devoted to teaching First Aid and to involve medical professionals in teaching these lessons.