First Aid Awareness Campaign for Two Undergraduate Nursing Cohorts

Abstract

Context: First aid is an emergency measure of saving a life, preventing further deterioration, and promoting recovery of the victim before professional medical help is initiated.  Awareness campaigns are significant community efforts to raise awareness of community groups regarding critical concerns.

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the first aid awareness campaign on student knowledge among two undergraduate nursing cohorts.

Methods: A quasi-experimental research (pre/post-test design) is selected to achieve the aim of this study. The study is conducted at King Saud bin Abdel-Aziz University Health Science College. A sample of 82 undergraduate student nurses is allocated from third and fourth years. A structured interview questionnaire is designed to assess the undergraduate student nurses’ cohorts’ level of knowledge regarding first aid.

Results: The study reveals a statistically significant improvement of the two undergraduate nursing cohorts’ level of knowledge in post-test compared to their pre-test scores. A non-statistically significant difference is revealed between two undergraduate nursing student cohorts (3^rd and 4^th year) level of knowledge after exposure to awareness session.

Conclusion: The study provides evidences of the efficacy of awareness campaigns to raise awareness of such a critical issue as first aid among nursing college students, recommending a separate first aid course for undergraduate nursing students once they start their major nursing courses. The study also recommends further studies for evaluating the effect of awareness campaigns as an active student learning method.