Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards First Aid for Common Injuries in the University Setting among Non-Academic Staff Members of a Selected State University in Sri Lanka

First aid is important in preventing fatalities and disabilities when given with correct techniques promptly. Knowledge on first aid, positive attitudes and correct practices of first aid among staff members is vital in environments with a dense population, such as universities. This study aimed to describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices on first aid for common injuries among non-academic staff members of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ), Sri Lanka. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with conveniently selected (N=170) non-academic staff of USJ. A self-developed and pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used. Depending on the mean, overall knowledge, and practices, they were divided as "Good" and "Poor"; attitudes were divided as "Positive" and "Negative”. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics with SPSS version 26. The response rate was 56.7%. The mean age of the participants was 35.58 (SD ± 9.27), and the majority were females (55.3%). Of all the participants, 42.4% completed a diploma/degree, and 43.5% were management assistants. Only 12.4% had taken first-aid training. Among all participants, 51.8% had good first-aid knowledge; 50.6% had positive attitudes, and 50.6% had good practices. Higher levels of education and training among the staff were found to be significantly associated with knowledge, attitudes, and practices. In contrast, the higher level of the job category was significantly associated with knowledge (p-value ≤ 0.05). Overall knowledge of first aid was “good”, attitudes were “positive”, and practices were “good” only in about half of the participants. It is vital to emphasize the relevant institutions that conduct awareness and education programmes with adequate training sessions on first aid.