Assessment of First Aid Knowledge among School Instructors in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, City, Saudi Arabia 2014.

Background:-With an increasing burden of accidents in young age group and particularly among school children, the need of introducing BLS and First response training to the school teachers have become essential. Evidence shows that spontaneous response of the teachers in emergencies is less than 30% and knowledge of basic principles of first Aid is deficient in more than 19% of them. Objective:-This study aims to assess existing knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards first aid among schoolteachers and members of school\\\\\\\'s management committee in Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia in order to identify the gaps regarding this critical public health problem. Methods:-A cross sectional study has been conducted during October- December 2013, over a sample of 341 school instructors by using non probability quota sampling technique where one third were Saudi male & two third of the sample were female instructors in governmental schools in Al-Madinah . Results:-Out of the total responders, 67.3% were less than 40 years old, while 88 % were ever married and 85.7% were of high education. It was found that 93.3% had more than two years of service.It was shown that 30.18% of the participants had encountered with an emergency condition during their service and 29% of them applied the first aid themselves.Overall knowledge of participants was found to be maximal for managing bleeding wounds (76.3%). While minimal knowledge was reported for CPR only by (7.4%) of participants. Regarding attitude of participants, a vast majority (92%) identified need of proper first aid training program in schools. Conclusion:-The study showed that our schoolteachers had low level of knowledge about first aid for the emergencies occurring in school. Most of them preferred to call others for help.