Awareness, Knowledge of First Aid and First Emergency Behavioral Perception of Medical Students in a University in Southeastern Nigeria

Background: Students are usually exposed to all kinds of injury in schools and with inadequate health care services in most schools; administering first aid is important in such emergency situations. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the awareness, knowledge and behavioral perception of first aid among medical students of a tertiary institution in South-eastern Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 medical students of Gregory University Uturu, Abia state, Nigeria. A structured pre-tested validated questionnaire assessing their awareness, knowledge and attitude was used to collect the data. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Chi-squared test were used to test for associations between socio-demographics, knowledge and attitude of respondents. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Out of the respondents, 98.4% have heard about first aid before the survey, (52.8%; n=132) have good knowledge of first aid skills, and 94% (n=235) have good attitude towards first aid. 91.2% said they are willing to help if trained while 94% of the respondents felt it was necessary to incorporate first aid in the school curriculum.

Conclusion: Although the students showed good awareness and attitude towards the concept of first aid, there is a gap in their knowledge and application of basic emergency first aid skills. There is a need to incorporate the training of basic first aid skills and basic life support skills in the school’s curriculum to bridge the gap.