FIRST AID FOR STUDENTS IN HIGH SCHOOL

AN EDUCATIONAL HEALTH ACTION

Abstract

Introduction: The high school curriculum, despite its commitment to professional and social preparatory education, does not include training for emergency situations, such as first aid. Objective: To develop and analyze an educational intervention on first aid for high school students, addressing the most prevalent accidents, such as accidents with venomous animals, choking, drowning, cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA), convulsions, physical trauma, and poisoning. Method: This was a quasi-experimental study with the application of a questionnaire and comparative statistical analysis before and after, to analyze an educational intervention carried out by university students from the Nursing and Medicine courses for high school students. Fifty high school students, aged between 14 and 17, enrolled in the same school participated in the study. The activity was conducted by 15 university students who had been previously trained by emergency physicians. Results: The students' performance was assessed through the progression of correct answers to the questions administered in the questionnaire. The average number of correct answers increased from 3.20 to 7.36 after the intervention, indicating a significant difference (p<0.001) between the average number of correct answers before and after the intervention. Most participants were very satisfied with the educational activity (80%), mainly due to new learning (48.3%) and because they considered the activity useful/applicable to their life context (43.3%). Conclusion: It is timely and necessary to integrate higher education and secondary education to expand knowledge of first aid, since 62% of students have never participated in training in this area. With the application of theoretical-practical activity, the results of the tests after the intervention were very satisfactory. The satisfaction questionnaire showed that the students approved the activity and considered it useful and important for new learning.