School-based first aid education in the Pécs School District Centre – challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Introduction: School-based first aid education can be an effective way to increase the number of lay first aid providers who are able to act. Our aim was to measure the current situation in primary- and secondary schools maintained by the School District Centre of Pécs, Hungary.
Methods: The study was carried out in the schools of the Pécs School District Centre. Data were collected using a self-edited questionnaire between March and June 2019. The questionnaire contained the following question sets: (1) socio-demographic characteristics, (2) own experiences and attitudes about first aid education, (3) current situation, opportunities, and barriers in the schools.
Results: In total, 114 participants responded the questionnaire from 43 schools. Only 32.5% of respondents knew that the Hungarian National Core Curriculum includes first aid. In total, 63.2% of participants answered that first aid education should be compulsory in childhood. Only 12.3% of schools organized first aid programmes regularly, with only 17.6% of these programmes carried out as part of school classes. Seven percent of the teachers asked teaches first aid, 16.7% would like to teach it, and 43.9% would like to teach it only after having participated in a first aid training. The answers indicated the following most common barriers: lack of time, lack of experience in first aid and its education, ‘no fit’ into the curricula.
Conclusions: Based on the answers it is possible to determine the points of intervention. However, a wider view and multi-sectoral co-operation would be necessary to obtain real results.