The role of emergency nursing in the medical assistance education of adults

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the rapid emergence of emergency nursing. Emergency medical service in Poland is currently undergoing changes. Searching for a systemic and legally provisioned solution became important from the point of view of national security,bearing in mind that first aid provided on site is crucial for saving human life. Aim: (1) determining how information concerning first aid is most willingly obtained; (2) obtaining opinions on medical assistance education by nursing staff; (3) obtaining opinions whether a part of the society would be willing to pay extra for education in medical assistance. Material and Methods. The survey involved 50 women and 71 men. This was 41% and 59% respectively, out of the total number of the respondents. The survey was conducted from October to December 2014. 121 questionnaires were filled in for the research. The questionnaire contained 18 questions, including: general personal details; questions about the social and material situation of the respondents; the respondents' subjective approach to providing first aid as well education on the subject; the source of their information about first aid. Results and Discussion. Of all the respondents, most of the people acquired medical knowledge through training or courses - 47 people. Acquiring medical knowledge by means of TV or radio programmes was the second most popular way. Such a view was expressed by 40 respondents. 41 people from among those interviewed gained medical knowledge online. Among the people participating in the survey, 79 answered that nursing staff was competent enough to provide medical knowledge, which accounted for 65%. 17% of the respondents answered that they had no opinion on the matter and 17% said they believed that nursing staff did not have suitable qualifications. 71 people of the surveyed answered that they would be willing to pay extra to acquire the medical knowledge of first aid, which is 59% of all the respondents. 41% said they would not be willing to pay extra to acquire medical knowledge. Conclusions: (1) Most respondents obtain medical information using the media (in its broad sense). (2) The majority of the respondents believe that nursing staff is competent enough to share medical knowledge. (3) The majority of the respondents answered that they would be willing to pay extra to acquire medical knowledge.

Keywords

• first aid, emergency nursing, knowledge, health education, emergency medical service, training