ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE OF EDUCATORS REGARDING FIRST AID AT SCHOOL

Abstract

Accidents in the school environment are common in the daily lives of educators, and in general they are the main responsible for the first care of students. The knowledge and attitude of the educators can directly influence the outcome of the situation attended, for this reason, this study aimed to know how the educators of a municipal school react in the face of an urgent/emergency situation in the school routine. The methodology adopted was qualitative research, with a descriptive-exploratory approach. 16 educators from a municipal school participated. Data collection took place through a questionnaire, discussed by content analysis. The results indicated that the main attitude adopted by the educators was to call the Emergency Mobile Care Service (SAMU) or the student’s parents. As for the most frequent accidents, fractures and trauma were highlighted. Most educators do not feel safe in acting in situations that require first aid. The situations in which they perform the most appropriate conduct are in cases of convulsions, followed by cardiorespiratory arrest, fracture in the cervical spine, contusion, respiratory difficulty and finally fainting and hemorrhages. This study revealed the difficulty of educators in dealing with situations that require first aid. Generally associated with the lack of knowledge for the intervention and the lack of ability to provide first aid. In short, it was identified that there is a lack of educator’s knowledge about the appropriate techniques in cases of accidents at school. The importance of new studies in this area and especially of first aid training for educators is highlighted.