Great deficits in first aid knowledge

Large Deficits in First Aid Under Laity: A study showed that none of the participants were able to properly execute the general resuscitation guidelines for first responders. Ten percent could not even call a correct emergency number.

According to a study by the University of Mainz, there are large deficits among lay people in first aid in emergency or accident situations. The knowledge is extremely bad, especially in terms of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Due to the results of the study, physicians are calling for simplifying and making the rules for revival easier to understand. New concepts could encourage more people to provide first aid refresher courses. Many people could be rescued in case of emergency if accident witnesses took the right action.

First aid measures among laymen extremely bad
According to a study by the University Hospital Mainz, the knowledge of first-aid measures among lay people is extremely poor. In the study of the researchers, doctors had confronted passers-by with a cardiac arrest in an emergency training dummy and asked for first aid. The observations were logged and subsequently evaluated. The result suggests that the knowledge of most Germans regarding first aid is very poor. Because none of the subjects was able to properly perform the general resuscitation guidelines for first responders. 43 percent of the study participants only tested the responsiveness of the „victim“, 65 percent performed chest compressions and 63 percent mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and 10 percent did not even have a valid emergency phone number.

Participants in the refresher courses achieved better results
However, the results also showed that those attending could achieve much better results that only recently took a refresher course. As the director of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Prof. Dr. med. Christian Werner, „Although our study did not aim to establish an optimal margin for first aid refresher courses, we were able to show that all participants who have completed a first aid course within the past three years have had mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as well performed the chest compressions“. Subjects whose last first aid course was more than three years old were much worse off.

Every German who has a driver's license has participated in a First Responder course at least once in his or her life. However, regular refresher courses are not required. The physicians therefore call for regular courses to refresh the findings. In addition, new findings will change the optimal guidelines from time to time.

Many are afraid of doing something wrong in an emergency
In an emergency, many shy away from carrying out resuscitation. Many people are afraid that they could aggravate the health of the patient by taking wrongful measures. Many people therefore die unnecessarily, although rapid help could significantly increase survival. If emergency medical devices begin resuscitating before the ambulance arrives, the patient's chance of survival is 2.5 times higher, as the Björn Steiger Foundation recently reported. (sb, 09.11.2010)

Also read:
Heart pressure massage instead of mouth-breathing
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for cardiac arrhythmias?

Image: Hanspeter Bolliger