First Aid Basics For High School Students “ABC” – Republic of Moldova (ASRM)

Name of the activity: First Aid Basics For High School Students “ABC”

Country/NMO: Republic of Moldova (ASRM)

Program: Emergency, Disaster Risk & Humanitarian Action

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Capacity Building (Training or Workshop)

General description:

Heart and breathe stops are the widest clinical problem in the whole world. Per statistics, annually in the Republic of Moldova registers more than 7,000 deaths triggered by the cardio-respiratory arrests. Half of individuals could have been saved in case if the resuscitation maneuvers had been performed within the first few minutes after the cardio-respiratory stop. This fact shows a direct dependence between the lack of skills and knowledge and citizens are not able to deliver first-aid. Moreover, the schools’ studies’ curricula do not include training or workshops related to first-aid, what means youth are not able to provide emergency help. Being a medical students we have decided to bring up in our society a company related with Emergencies Disaster Risk and Humanitarian Action named: “First Aid Basics Skills for High School Students “ABC “. In number of 40 trainers – students that have passed a full course of resuscitation maneuvers by University’s Center of Simulation in Medical Training.
By them were coached around 1,500 high school students of 15-19 years old. Around 10,000 citizens (1,500 youth, over 500 teachers, about 8,000 relatives, neighbors) will benefit from the immediate medical aid trainings. Through the project’s activities ASRM will encourage volunteerism and civic action in communities of the Republic of Moldova.

Focus area:

Improvement of humanitarian initiatives

Problem statement:

Per statistics, annually in the Republic of Moldova registers more than 7,000 deaths triggered by the cardio-respiratory arrests. Half of individuals could have been saved in case if the resuscitation maneuvers had been performed within the first few minutes after the cardio-respiratory stop. This fact shows a direct dependence between the lack of skills and knowledge and citizens are not able to deliver first-aid. Moreover, the schools’ studies’ curricula do not include training or workshops related to first-aid, what means youth are not able to provide emergency help. Previously, ASRM surveyed youth on their level of knowledge in this area and found out that half of them have erroneous and false information, that in many cases are more dangerous than the lack of it.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The target group includes around 1,500 high school students (beginning with grades X-XII and 15-19 years old) from Chisinau, Ialoveni and Straseni administrative divisions, they will be trained and able to deliver first-aid to citizens, in the period October-November 2017.
In role of beneficiaries are high schools’ authorities, teachers, parents and friends of high school students that will be instructed, thereby to increase the awareness of aforementioned specific abilities and further benefits. Through the project’s activities ASRM will encourage volunteerism and civic action in communities of the Republic of Moldova .
Around 10,000 citizens (1,500 youth, over 500 teachers, about 8,000 relatives, neighbors) will benefit from the immediate medical aid trainings.

Objectives and indicators of success:

The project goal is to empower high school students to provide emergency first aid to peers and other citizens in their communities.
The project activities are:
1. To encourage volunteerism and civic action in districts through medical students’ involvement into emergency medical training for youth.
2. To strengthen emergency medical and practical skills of about 1,500 high school students from 30 high schools through practical training.
Description: This project aims to provide with first-aid basics skills to about 1,500 high school students through practical training delivered by 40 volunteers – students and residents from “Nicolae Testemitanu” State University of Medicine and Pharmacy in the Republic of Moldova. To achieve the proposed result, ASRM will train the 40 volunteers, who will conduct the on-site practical training for 1,500 school students from 30 high school in a peer to peer manner.
The project aim and objectives will be obtained by following steps:
I. First stage:
a) Develop action plan for project implementation.
b) Sign Memorandum of Understanding with three relevant institutions – partners.
c) Conduct a project laughing roundtable
II. The second stage:
a) Select 40 students/volunteers from “Nicolae Testemitanu” State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of Moldova for training
b) Conduct one-day training with 40 University volunteers.
c) Select educational institutions for first-aid training and prepare teams for practical training.
III. The third stage:
Conduct immediate medical aid training in 10 high schools.
IV. The fourth stage:
Conduct immediate medical aid training in 20 high schools.
V. The fifth stage
Conduct the final roundtable
VI. The sixth stage
Develop final report
Implementation timeframe for this project is September 1 – December 31, 2017.

Methodology:

To evaluate the project’s results and especially, instruction of the student in basic life support technique, we will use a few indicators and methods:
At the beginning and at the end of each training participants will fill in a test to evaluate knowledge level before and after instruction. Also, instructors will start with short discussions and will ask students some questions to see their level of knowledge about basic life support technique before instruction.
For instructing students we will use the mannequins that offer feedback to the instructed person, so he can see if the chest compressions are performed correctly.At the end of instruction, each student will be evaluated by an instructor, to make sure that he is able to give correctly the first medical aid.

Plans for evaluation:

We have accomplished our goal and objectives that had been set at the beginning of the project and even I have outgrown them a little bit.
We were able to establish and sign three partnership agreements with three relevant institutions: “Nicolae Testemitanu” State University of Medicine and Pharmacy from the Republic of Moldova, University Center of Simulation in Medical Training and Service of Civil Protection and Emergency Situations, which were our partners during this project, and helped us in successfully project’s implementation. After that, we have selected forty students/volunteers from “Nicolae Testemitanu” State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of Moldova and instructed them how to provide correctly a training in immediate medical aid.
Next and the biggest result was that had been instructed approximately 1,600 high school students from thirdytwo educational institutions from the capital of the country – Chisinau and Ialoveni ,Straseni districts, in the basics of the immediate medical aid, so now they are capable of applying in practice this technique.
At the same time with students, have been instructed at least one hundred teachers and parents in immediate medical aid, thereby more than ten thousand citizens (1,500 youth, over 500 teachers, about 8,000 relatives, neighbors) directly and indirectly will gain benefit from effects of the project.
We were able to have more than ten references in print and audio/video media about the project.