“When you’re hurt and you need serious help you call 999.” Educating children about emergency services and appropriate use of 999: An evaluation study of the Blue Light Hub app

Abstract

Objectives In the face of unprecedented demand, the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust developed ‘Blue Light Hub’: a new app to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our overarching aim was to examine the effectiveness of the app.Design Primary school-aged children from three schools in South Wales, UK, played with the app for 2 hours over 2 weeks in class time. Children completed quizzes to assess their knowledge and awareness of, and confidence in engaging with, emergency services before and after using the app.Participants Our evaluation focused on N=393 children who completed both the pre-test and post-test quizzes. On average, children were 8–9 years old (median school year, Year 4); 47.8% were male and 50.9% were female.Results After using the app, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children who knew of appropriate actions to take in non-emergency scenarios, χ2(1) = 26.01, and could provide a question a call handler would ask them if they called 999, χ2(1) = 13.79. There was also an increase in the proportion of children who could identify an National Health Service (NHS) service that could help them if they were unwell, χ2(1) = 33.31, name different roles in the NHS, χ2(1) = 12.80 and knew how dialling 111 could help them χ2(1) = 90.05 (all p values<0.001).Conclusion To our knowledge, Blue Light Hub is the first app of its kind designed to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that the app supports children’s knowledge and awareness of emergency services.