A Study to Assess Knowledge of Basic First Aid Practices amongst Teachers of Selected Government Schools of Bhopal

Introduction: According to World Health Report, 15% of disease burden was due to injuries. Children are the most vulnerable population. Since children spend majority of time in schools, there is a high chance of injuries happening at school. Teachers will be the first person to help out students in such emergencies. Hence, they should have adequate knowledge and skills to manage such emergencies. Aim: To assess the knowledge of teachers on first-aid and see the effect of educational intervention on the same. Methods: An intervention study was conducted among five randomly selected government schools in catchment area of urban centre of GMC Bhopal. The teachers were given a questionnaire for pre-test followed by educational intervention by presentations and videos. After a month, post test was conducted. Results: The study was conducted among 35 teachers in five schools. All the schools had a first-aid kit. None of the teachers had a formal training course on first-aid before. Hence 100% teachers fell in poor category of knowledge before intervention which improved to 60% in fair category and 2.8% in good category after the intervention. Knowledge on managing fainting episodes (86%), foreign body (79.5%) and nose bleeds (65%) improved significantly after the intervention. Overall, the knowledge score improved by 15.12%. There was 40% improvement in maintenance of health register by the schools. Conclusion: By health education and training on first-aid, the teachers should be enabled to handle emergency situations at school which in turn would ensure the safety of children.