Incidents That Require First Aid in Schools: Can Teachers Give First Aid?

Objective: School-aged children are a risk group in terms of accidents and injuries, and these factors may be the primary causes of death in children. Teachers have important roles in preventing accidents and injuries and giving first aid. The purpose of this research was to identify situations in which teachers most frequently encounter the need to administer first aid to children and whether the teachers performed the correct application in these events.
Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with 331 teachers in a city in the Central Anatolia Region. The study was approved by the local ethics committee and the participants.
Results: Of the 45.3% teachers educating children ages 6 to 15 years, 81.0% of the teachers were familiar with first aid, but only 23.0% claimed to have an adequate knowledge. In the previous year, situations that had required first aid included epistaxis (75.2%), abdominal pain (49.2%), and vomiting (39.2%). The study also investigated any accidents and injuries occurring, their causes, and the teachers' interventions following the accidents and injuries. It was found that teachers had information about first aid, but they did not trust themselves enough to practice it.
Conclusion: Understanding the causes of accidents and injuries, finding preventive measures, and updating teachers' knowledge about this subject are important to provide a safe educational environment. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:456-462).