Stop the Bleed: The Effect of Hemorrhage Control Education on Laypersons’ Willingness to Respond During a Traumatic Medical Emergency

Abstract

In this hemorrhage control education study, it was found that a short educational intervention can improve laypersons' self-efficacy and reported willingness to use a tourniquet in an emergency. Identified barriers to act should be addressed when designing future hemorrhage control public health education campaigns. Community education should continue to be a priority of the "Stop the Bleed" campaign. Ross EM , Redman TT , Mapp JG , Brown DJ , Tanaka K , Cooley CW , Kharod CU , Wampler DA . Stop the bleed: the effect of hemorrhage control education on laypersons' willingness to respond during a traumatic medical emergency. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(2):127-132.

Immediate response to major incidents: defining an immediate responder!

“…The Hartford Consensus aims to use this therapeutic window to address the number one most preventable cause of death after both military and civilian injuries, i.e., external hemorrhages, using multiple steps, such as education, empowerment, and access [27,[30][31][32][33][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Others have discussed the overall possibility for bystanders to perform other measures as immediate responders [15,20,21,35,36].…”

“…In concordance with the findings from Ross et al, only 68% of the respondents in our NMK group were initially positive towards controlling hemorrhages in the treatment category. Ross et al [50] reported that most civilians (64%) were not comfortable with responding to a traumatic medical emergency due to multiple barriers, including feeling inadequately trained. Nevertheless, the figure increased to 91% (vs. 96% in Ross study), when the respondents were offered an appropriate education.…”

“…Similar programs have already been suggested [56]. Evaluation of the content and length of one of the "stop the bleed" courses, in San Antonio, Texas, USA in 2017 showed that just a short course, 1 h, is enough for civilians to both feel comfortable in stopping bleedings using tourniquets and performing it correctly, by applying pressure [47][48][49][50].…”

“…Having this in mind, the outcome of the test showed that there was a significant difference in all the 20 statements. The McNemar-Bowker test was also used in this study [50], where the participants in the study were also recruited using self-selection and thus not a randomized sample.…”

Stop the Bleed Training: Rescuer Skills, Knowledge, and Attitudes of Hemorrhage Control Techniques

“…Since the STB campaign was launched in 2017, several studies have sought to investigate the efficacy of STB training. [19][20][21][22][23] However, no study to date has provided objective evidence on the performance of STB skills by both LRs and MRs. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to perform a critical systematic evaluation of STB course participant knowledge, attitude, and skills with the goal to provide valuable feedback to continue to enhance the participation in STB courses.…”