The Impact of Three Different First Aid Curricula on Emergency Helping among College Students

Abstract

The occurrence of emergency helping behavior among university first aid students was evaluated in relation to three different methods of first aid instruction. The study included 98 students at a regional western university who were enrolled in three different sections of first aid, and one section of health and wellness (control group). First aid sections were randomly assigned to one of three different teaching methods: American Red Cross (ARC), National Safety Council (NSC), or Emergency Helping Behavior (EHB). Toward the end of the course, students were individually exposed to a mock emergency without prior knowledge. Helping rates for each group were: EHB—45 percent, ARC—26 percent, NSC—16 percent, and Control—12 percent. Statistically significant differences between groups were found using Chi-square analysis. Findings of this study have implications for improving the effectiveness of university level first aid instruction.