Assessment of the First Aid Knowledge of Students at the Mosul Technical Medical Institute

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Introduction

First aid is provided to sick or injured individuals in any scenario that poses a risk to their health, to save their lives, prevent the situation from worsening, or assist in their recovery until more qualified medical help arrives. This includes treatments and assessments that can be performed by the victim or a bystander using little or no medical equipment [1]. Students are taught how to manage crises in a hospital emergency room with medications and other essentials at some time in their medical education. But having the necessary skills to manage an emergency without a hospital setting at the scene of the accident or incident might not be adequate [2]. Research shows that first aid knowledge among medical students has long been a neglected topic. Since medical crises have become more common in recent years, it is critical to make sure that medical staff members have the necessary training to handle such situations. There have been very few studies conducted on Indian medical students' first aid expertise [3]. A first aid giver should be able to rapidly and calmly assess the situation, treat life-threatening symptoms while shielding themselves from harm, get medical attention, and call for an ambulance in the event of a major sickness or injury [4]. The care given by a concerned party as quickly as possible following an illness or injury is known as first aid.

Even the most severe injuries may not show any obvious bleeding or potentially fatal symptoms; these injuries can be recognized and potentially life-threatening harm avoided by employing a systematic or structured approach to the evaluation procedure. The airway, breathing, and circulation (ABC) technique is used in all client examinations to accomplish this [5]. According to research that needed to be conducted, deaths occurred during the first five minutes of an accident (35%), and within the first thirty minutes (54%). First aid is often administered by an individual at the incident site; regrettably, this interference manifested as being too far away from rescue efforts. Being aware of the situation and providing effective first aid will increase the effectiveness of post-event therapy and reduce mortality (20%) [6]. Furthermore, by avoiding infections, lowering injuries, saving lives, alleviating chronic diseases, and empowering marginalized populations, FA is an essential skill that may improve public health. Through practices like mask wearing, hand washing, and physical distance, FA teaches individuals how to protect themselves and others from infectious illnesses like COVID-19. Before medical assistance comes, the FA also offers prompt, effective treatment for wounds and diseases such bleeding, burns, fractures, and poisoning [7].

Methodology

The design: In order to assess the level knowledge of medical institute students about first aid in Mosul City, this study used a cross-sectional design from 7 October 2023 to 30 March 2024.

The Sample: A convenience sampling method was used to recruit students from medical institute students in Mosul City, the number of samples was (191). The research design for this study was a simple randomized.

Study tool: The questionnaire was developed by the researchers and provided to measure students ' knowledge regarding first aids care in Mosul city. The study instruments comprised (6) Parts, including the following. Part One/Data includes the Table (2) Sex distributions of the students’ participants in the study (male, female), Part Two Contains two items: Academic stage (first and second stages) Part three/ type of Study Contains two items :(morning study, evening study) Part four/ consists of (22) questions about the knowledge of the first aid and (2) questions about students participated in a first aid course.

Validity (10) Experts on the panel determined the validity of the questionnaire instrument by defining the content's sufficiency, relevance, and clarity.

Reliability To statistically assess reliability of questionnaire, A pilot study was completed before the start of work to gather data. It involved [10] samples selected from Mosul Medical Technical Institute (this sample was excluded from the original study sample) by direct self-administer of instrument questionnaire to assess the internal consistency of the questionnaire that examined the sample by using Cronbach's Alpha measurement, that done evaluation by the researcher, the result of reliability for a pilot study that Cronbach's Alpha was (0.854).

Data collection

Data were collected by selecting the subject sample (participants) and by intruding to answer with simple explanations without giving any answer or suggestion that made the effect or bias of results; the researcher assumes time started from (8:30 A.M-1:30 A.M); five day per week for data collection and. Each needed approximately (15 – 30 min) is time. Trained interviewers administered the questionnaire to the participating student in face-to-face interviews.

Results

Table 1: Stage distributions of the students’ participants in the study Academic stage Frequency Percentage First stage 67 35.1% Second stage 124 64.9% According to Table 2, the frequency distributions of the stages among the students first stage is (67) and second stages (124) were high, with a percentage of 64.9% higher than the second stage in the research population.

Table 2: Sex distributions of the students’ participants in the study Sex Frequency Percentage Male 114 59.7% Female 77 40.3% Table 2 shows the frequency and distribution by gender among male students (114) while the number of female students was (77) and the percentage of males was 59.7, which is a high percentage in the study sample.

Table 3: Distributions whether students participated in a first aid course Participated in a first aid course Frequency Percentage% Yes 19 9.9% No 172 90.1% Total 191 100 Table 3 shows that a large majority of the students at the Medical Institute did not participate in first aid courses or programs, as the percentage reached 90%, while a small number of students participated in the courses, amounting to approximately 9.9%.

Table 4: Distributions whether students find it is necessary to learn the first aid Activity Necessary to learn the first aid activity Frequency Percentage% Yes 185 97% No 6 3% Total 191 100 As shown in Table 4, the majority of students (97%) believed that the first aid take was essential, whereas just 3% did not share this opinion.

Table 3 shows that students at the Mosul Technical Medical Institute have knowledge about first aid, with a rate of 52.9%. They also have knowledge and information on how to deal with head injuries at a rate of 46.1%. However, the information among students regarding spinal cord injury cases was weak, at a rate of 38.7%. They had excellent information on how to assist a person with a head injury, with a rate of 72.3%. Additionally, their knowledge in dealing with severe bleeding cases was good, at a rate of 56.5%. They showed very good understanding of how to apply pressure to a wound to stop bleeding, with a rate of 75.4%.

Discussion

Data analysis for this study demonstrates a large majority of the students at the Medical Institute did not participate in first aid courses or programs, as the percentage reached 90%, while a small number of students participated in the courses, amounting to approximately 9.9%.as table (3) Alternatively, a survey of students in grades 9–12 in Dehradun, India, revealed that just 23.1% of them knew enough about first aid, while 33.3% knew only a little. [8], also according to table (4), 97 percent of students thought that first aid was necessary, while only 3percent disagreed. This study is similar to a study conducted in Saudi Arabia 2016. Research indicates a positive correlation between first aid knowledge and prior first aid experience. Consequently, the research findings indicated that their pupils exhibited inadequate understanding and a low degree of prior first aid instruction [9]. Study shows that research conducted in Riyadh found that 12% of students had an emergency requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, only 14% of them were able to do it due to their ignorance (48, 2%) [10]. A research conducted at Taibah University in Medina found that students studying health sciences were not well-versed in basic first aid. However, once an awareness program was put in place, 55% of the pupils were able to handle emergency circumstances. This indicates that the degree of knowledge and performance of students would be greatly impacted by first aid instruction at institutions [11]. Unexpectedly, 65.3% of students who had experienced a circumstance requiring CPR did not assist, 35.2% did not because they were ill-prepared, 20.1% were anxious, and 10% experienced other problems. According to a similar pattern in the US, bystanders did not do CPR because they were frightened of injuring the patient, 9.1% were unable to do it correctly, or 37.5 percent panicked [12]. Table (5) shows We note that the students of the Mosul Technical Medical Institute have information about first aid at a rate of 52.9%, and they also have knowledge and information on how to deal with head injuries at a rate of 46.1%, but the information of the students in cases of spinal injury was weak at a rate of 38.7%, and they had excellent information on how to deal with a person injured in the head at a rate of 72.3%, and their information on dealing with cases of severe bleeding was good at a rate of 56.5%, and they showed very good knowledge on how to put pressure on the wound to reduce bleeding at a rate of 75.4%, and a percentage of the students at a rate of 51.3% agreed that force should be used to stop bleeding, most of the students had basic information on how to deal with fractures at a rate of 51.8%, and a percentage of 72.3% of the institute’s students had knowledge on how to deal with cases of suffocation, and the students of the Mosul Technical Medical Institute agreed on the necessity of having first aid training courses at a rate of 95.8%, a percentage of 71.2% of students had the ability to distinguish between suffocation and shortness of breath, few students had information on how to open the airway, their percentage was 46.1%, only 50.3% of students knew how to deal with poisoning cases, a small percentage of students had information on the types of poisoning, their percentage was 49.7%, the majority of students agreed to help the poisoned person vomit, their percentage was 48.2%, a very small percentage of students had knowledge of the necessary procedures in case of exposure to a dog bite, their percentage was 41.4%, the percentage of students who had knowledge of dressing and sterilizing wounds was very good, 79.1%, the majority of students had good knowledge of the causes of shock to the person, their percentage was 71.2%, some students, their percentage was only 59.2%, had knowledge of how to put a splint in emergency cases, a small percentage of students had knowledge of the types of burns and their degrees, their percentage was 43.5%. These findings contradicted those of Semwal et al., who found that over 99 percent of students are unaware of how to treat sprains and nasal bleeding [13]. Just 26% of senior school prefects in the Galle education zone in Sri Lanka understood the proper CPR ratio, and those who did had received prior first aid training, according to different research conducted in 2015 by Priyangika et al. The bulk of the students (83.1%) had no formal first aid training, which is the primary cause of the low knowledge shown in this study [14].

Conclusion

It was observed that many students do not take first aid classes, the large number of incorrect responses about the definition of first aid, and the necessity of learning how effective first aid is. The results also revealed that a significant portion of the students who took part gave incorrect responses or lacked understanding of the circulatory system, trauma, burns, bites, and respiratory first aid. However, the findings showed that a sizable portion of pupils gave accurate responses regarding the frequency of fractures and bleeding.

Recommendations

Increase the special courses of First Aid for students of the Medical Institute by preparing lectures from the nursing department, and further studies can be conducted to assess the knowledge, trends and practices of first aid assistance among students at the Medical Institute.

Acknowledgments

I am the author of this study. We would like to thank all the students who participated in this study.