Medical Students Can be Trained to be Life-Saving First Aid Instructors for Laypeople: A Feasibility Study from Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Abstract

Introduction:Bystanders can improve the outcome in emergencies by activating the “chain of survival.” Gaza’s (Palestine) population has little, if any, access to training in Basic Life Support (BLS) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The goal was to recruit local medical students to be life-saving first aid instructors, and have them train 3,000 laypeople in BLS and CPR.Methods:One hundred and seventeen medical students from Al Azhar University-Gaza (Gaza City, Palestine) were trained as BLS and CPR instructors. Twelve training hours were delivered in practical BLS and CPR skills, plus four in communication and didactical skills, to enable training of laypeople. Students answered a questionnaire exploring demographics, prior training experience, expectations, and motivation to join the training. Teaching material were developed after the European Resuscitation Council (ERC; Niel, Belgium) guidelines and similar training at The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø, Norway).Results:A total of 117 medical students (52.1% female; 47.9% male), from third through sixth year, completed training, and all were in their early twenties. Ninety-five (81.2%) agreed to answer the questionnaire. Of those, five students lost family members during Israeli military operations. Eighty-two (70.1%) never had hands-on first aid training. Seventy-six (80.0%) hoped the training would improve their community’s response to emergencies. With 58 training sessions completed, 1,312 laypeople (596 males; 716 females) were trained: 5.52 lay trainees per student instructor. The majority (n = 1,012; 77.1%) were school students aged 13–20 years.Conclusion:It is feasible to recruit local medical students for practical BLS and CPR trainings targeting laypeople in communities under stress. The training impact on local resilience and patients’ outcomes need further studies.

Faculty Development Approaches for Life Support Courses: A Scoping Review

“…A search of the databases identified a total of 13 219 records. After removing 2909 duplicates, 10 310 records were screened by reviewing the titles and abstracts; 107 potentially relevant records were included in the full‐text assessment and a total of 20 studies, 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 including 5 conference abstracts, 15 , 21 , 25 , 26 , 31 1 short communication 29 and 14 full‐length articles, † were included in the final analysis. A flow diagram of the reviewing process is shown in Figure .…”

“…A flow diagram of the reviewing process is shown in Figure . There were 6 randomized controlled trials, 12 , 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 20 12 nonrandomized studies, 15 , 19 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 and 2 descriptive surveys. 13 , 23 Interventions in the included studies are shown in Table 1 .…”

“…There were 9 studies identified that were associated with new or modified courses to improve instructor qualification/training. 15 , 18 , 19 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 , 30 …”

Emergências Médicas: Estudantes de odontologia estão preparados para atuar nesse tipo de situação?

“…A adoção de medidas de primeiros socorros (PS) a vítimas fora do ambiente hospitalar realizado por leigos, demanda que a população esteja prontamente treinada, capacitada e apta para agir 1,2 . Quanto mais rápido as manobras de suporte básico de vida (SBV) são adotadas, maior é a oportunidade de a vítima sobreviver até a chegada do resgate.…”

“…Infelizmente, a maioria das pessoas não sabe agir diante de situações de emergências, por desconhecerem as medidas a serem adotadas, por exemplo, em casos de infarto agudo do miocárdio (IAM) 1,4,5 , que no Brasil causou 92.657 mortes em 2017 1 . O IAM é causado por doença isquêmica do coração 6 , que pertence às doenças cardiovasculares (DCV), grupo de doenças responsáveis por 28% dos óbitos dos brasileiros [7][8][9] .…”