First Aid Curriculum for Second Year Medical Students
Abstract
Audience: This small-group workshop is designed for pre-clinical medical students. The workshop can also be offered to other medical students looking to review first aid in the community setting.
Introduction: First aid training in medical students varies based on each student’s previous experience. Because of this, medical students in their pre-clinical years have expressed a desire for further training in first aid.1 While most bystanders in an emergency situation do not have a medical background, medical students have received additional training that can provide the skillset to process and respond to emergency situations in a different capacity. Most medical schools have not adopted a universal curriculum in teaching medical students first aid.2 Incorporating first aid into a medical school curriculum can enhance medical students’ confidence in emergent situations and lead to better outcomes for patients requiring immediate on-site care.
Educational Objectives: The goal of this workshop was to improve the confidence of medical students in handling emergencies in the community with the use of first aid while also giving them a standard approach to emergencies using an airway, breathing, and circulation approach. The curriculum was evaluated through student-perceived self-efficacy and confidence in handling the provided scenarios, performance on relevant multiple choice questions, and general appeal of the first aid sessions. By the end of this workshop, students will be able to define the goals of “first aid” and first responder actions, describe clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of an airway, breathing, or circulation emergency in the setting of selected medical emergencies, and demonstrate immediate care steps in the setting of selected medical emergencies, specifically the Heimlich maneuver on adults and infants, direct pressure, wound packing, tourniquet application for external bleeding, epinephrine auto-injector administration, and the recovery position for obtunded or unconscious patients.
Educational Methods: Small group activities were performed with a focus on case-based scenarios combined with hands-on instruction. The four scenarios were choking, seizure, anaphylaxis, and bleeding which were taught by an educator who was either faculty, an emergency medicine resident, or an upper-level medical student. Facilitators were provided an educational handout specific to their station to guide them through
the teaching session. A PowerPoint presentation was also provided complete with supporting images and videos to share with the students each session.
Research Methods: Students were asked to complete a pre-test and post-test survey to assess knowledge outcome, self-efficacy in first aid, and overall appeal of the workshop. The multiple-choice knowledge outcome data was scored for percent correct on each question as well as overall performance on questions grouped by content. Students were also asked to provide feedback and comments on their overall experience in the workshop.
Results: Overall, medical students reported increased knowledge and confidence in responding to various first-aid situations. There was overall improvement in pre-test and post-test evaluations. The appeal of the event as a whole and its usefulness was overwhelmingly viewed as positive. Some participants noted they wanted similar workshops with more first-aid topics. Participants also noted they felt better prepared to respond to the various emergencies included in the workshop.
Discussion: A workshop directed at teaching first aid to medical students increased their confidence and knowledge in responding to various emergencies and can successfully be accomplished through a focused large group didactic session and multiple clinically relevant small group teaching sessions.