Knowledge and training of primary school teachers in first aid - a questionnaire based study

Background: Students at schools may need first aid due to illness or accident. Therefore, teachers at school should know first aid measures and be able to put them into practice. The aim of this study is to assess awareness regarding first aid training among primary school teachers. Methods: Subjects were 150 primary school teachers from nine schools in the Udupi district of Karnataka. They were assessed by predesigned questionnaire proforma, after which each teacher was interviewed and responses were discussed separately in smaller groups. Results: Of the subjects, 11.3% felt that first aid is important and 87.7% said that it is very important and wanted to learn first aid. About a third (30.2%) of the teachers knew some basic treatments for minor emergencies but they didn’t recognize such treatments were called first aid. Most of the subjects (69.8%) were unfamiliar with the expression “first aid”. Conclusion: First aid training should be included in the teacher training curriculum, and such training should be updated regularly.