LIFEGUARDS’ KNOWLEDGE RETENTION FOLLOWING AIRWAY MANAGEMENT, VENTILATION AND OXYGEN ADMINISTRATION TRAINING

Abstract

Aim: To assess the retention of lifeguards’ knowledge after Qualified First Aid Course and its recertification in 3 essential categories: airway management, ventilation and oxygen administration. Material and methods: The study was performed from August 2020 to November 2020. The online survey addressed to lifeguards from 16 provinces of Poland was used as the evaluation method. Analysis of knowledge retention depending on the time that has passed since Qualified First Aid Course or its recertification was carried out on basis of 312 collected questionnaires. Results: Participants obtained the mean score of 7.9 ± 2.5 out of 15 points. Statistically significant difference was found between mean scores achieved by respondents who attended in the full course (n = 171) and those (n = 141) who have taken part in at least 1 recertification (respectively 7.6 ± 2.53 vs. 8.3 ± 2.7 points; p = 0.018). Although data analysis did not show a statistically significant downward trend depending on the time that has passed since Qualified First Aid Course, mean scores obtained by the study group in specific periods of time that has passed since recertification differ significantly (p = 0.026). The study identified 6 areas of knowledge least assimilated by lifeguards respectively: 2 in airway management, 3 in ventilation and 1 in oxygen administration category. Conclusions: Significant downtrend over time after Qualified First Aid Course recertification and detected areas of insufficient knowledge relating to key issues of life support indicates that the lifeguards’ training should be reanalyzed and redesigned carefully.