The Use of Simulated Patients During Basic-first Aid Courses for Laypeople

Summary

Background: Teaching first aid to laypeople is a cost-effective way to improve public health. However, it is currently unclear what the most effective ways are to teach first aid. It has already been shown that simulated patients have an added value in teaching emergency care to healthcare professionals.

This paper describes the protocol for a cluster-randomized controlled trial that will investigate the influence of using a simulated patient during basic first aid training for laypeople on laypeople's knowledge, skills and self-efficacy.

Hypothesis: The null hypothesis of this research is that the use of simulated patients during basic first aid training does not result in a statistically significant change in knowledge, skills and self-efficacy concerning the first aid topics for which a simulated patient is used. The alternative is that knowledge, skills and self-efficacy will be influenced by using simulated patients.

Methods: This study will be a cluster-randomized controlled trial, that will take place from September 2018 to June 2020. The study population will consist of employees taking a three day first aid certification course with the Belgian Red Cross. The employers requesting a first aid course will be randomised in receiving a course with or without simulated patient. The simulated patient will only be used for the topics first aid for burns and first aid for stroke in the intervention group. The participants will complete a questionnaire to measure their knowledge and self-efficacy before and after the course, and complete a practical skills test after the course testing these first aid topics. To test whether the retention of first aid knowledge and self-efficacy is influenced by using a simulated patient during a certification course, participants following a refresher course one year after the certification course will complete a follow-up questionnaire.

This cluster-randomized controlled trial will be, to the investigator's knowledge, the first to investigate the added value of simulated patients during first aid courses for laypeople.

Conditions

• Burns
• Stroke

Interventions

OTHER

Simulated patient

The simulated patient is a professional actor and Belgian Red Cross employee, who combines acting distress and pain with moulage, to mimic the injuries as truthfully as possible. For feasibility reasons, the simulant will only be included in two sections of the course: the respective treatments of burns and stroke. The remainder of the course will be taught without simulated patient by the professional first aid tutors.

OTHER

No simulated patient

Instead of a simulated patients, participants get to watch video clips on first aid techniques.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Belgian Red Cross

  collaborator OTHER

• Centre for Evidence-Based Practice, Belgium

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Emmy De Buck, Phd · Centre for Evidence-Based Practice, Belgium

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-09-01

Primary Completion

2020-12-31

Completion

2020-12-31

Countries

• Belgium

Study Locations