Assessment of Nursing Student’s Awareness toward First Aid: Suggested Curriculum

Background: Accidents and illness can sometimes be life-threatening, where there is
very little time for an aider to react and prevent permanent disabilities or even death. So first
aid is first help required in almost all instances of disaster and dangers to save life and prevent
injury from becoming worse. This study aimed to assess nursing students’ awareness toward
first aid. Design: a descriptive design. Setting: this study was conducted in Ain Shams
University hospital, aldemerdash hospital, pediatric hospital, academic heart institute and
Cleopatra hospital. Research subject: a convenience sample include 130 internship year
nursing students - at Faculty of Nursing in Ain Shams University. Tools: Students’ self-
administered questionnaire and Students’ observational checklist. Result: the study showed
that (59.2%) of nursing students had unsatisfactory scores of knowledge regarding to first aid
measures, only (55.4%) of them had satisfactory practice level toward first aid measures, and
(58.46%) of had positive attitude toward first aid. Conclusion: Only less than half of nursing
students under study had satisfactory scores of knowledge level. While, slightly more than half
of them had satisfactory scores of practice and positive attitude toward first aid measures.
Furthermore, there were statistically significant relation between total satisfactory scores of
knowledge, practice & attitude of nursing students. Recommendation: First aid and basic life
support should be an integral part of all nursing faculties curricula to ensure that nursing
student could grasp enough knowledge and performance that necessary to help people in
emergency situations.