Adem DURSUN, Serkan ÖZSOYLU, Burcu EMEKLİOĞLU, Başak Nur AKYILDIZ

Evaluating the basic life support knowledge among schoolteachers: A cross-sectional survey in Kayseri, Turkey

Children spend a significant proportion of their day in school when they arenot with their families.Therefore they might experience medical emergencysituations due to injuries, complications of chronic health conditions, orunexpected major illnesses that occur in school. In cases of emergencies,school teachers are expected to play a key role in performing basic life support(BLS) on school children. Very limited data are present in the literature thataddress the knowledge of the schoolteacher regarding BLS. The primaryobjective of this study was to asses the BLS knowledge, training status andattitude towards pediatric BLS among schoolteachers.The study had a cross-sectional research design and was conducted betweenJanuary and March 2017. A self administered questionnaire was used for datacollection to assess the knowledge of teachers.The questionnaires were filled in by 541 teachers (243 male and 298 women).The median age of the study population was 39 (34-45) years. One-third ofthe respondents reported having taken a BLS class in the past (33.1%). Themean for the correct answers for the study population was 5/14 (4/14-7/14).For trained teachers, it was 6/14 (4/14-8/14) and for untrained teachers, it was5/14 (3/14-7/14)(P < 0.001). There were no differences between teachers whohad attended different BLS courses. Significant differences between teacherswere observed: 62% of teachers with previous BLS training felt capable ofproviding cardio pulmonary resusitation (CPR) to their students compared to48% in the group without previous training (P =0.001). Ninety- five percentof the teachers were eager to attend a BLS course and 92% reported thatBLS training should be mandatorily given for teacher certification.Teachers are aware of the importance of BLS and they are willing to attendBLS training programs and improve their knowledge.Despite the fact that the knowledge of trained teachers was found to bebetter than those of untrained teachers, school teachers in Turkey have alow level of knowledge and skills regarding BLS.

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