Knowledge and attitudes on first aid and basic life support of pre- and elementary school teachers and parents

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of first aid (FA) of primary and pre-school teachers and the parents of children in these education stages. Methods: A questionnaire already used in previous publications was employed and consisted of 4 sections: (1) general information; (2) assessment of FA knowledge; (3) questions about FA, and (4) attitudes about FA. The questionnaire was sent by e-mail in Google Forms format to different education centres of the Autonomous Community of Galicia. The centres were asked to send them to the school staff and parents of the pupils so that they could be completed. Results: A total of 470 questionnaires were analysed (177 teachers; 242 parents and 51 teachers with children). More than half (268, 57%) of the participants stated to have knowledge of FA. In the case of the school teachers, associations were found between having undertaken some kind of FA training and teaching these contents (P = .008). Only 4 participants were able to put in the correct order the steps of the basic life support sequence, and nobody answered correctly all the questions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. More than 95% of the sample were in favour to include FA in the school curriculum and in the study plans of university degrees aimed to train school/high school teachers.