Introduction

Community health workers are considered a professional health category in Brazil who are in direct daily contact with community users and, therefore, more likely to face emergency or first aid situations.

Objective

To assess the level of knowledge and confidence of community health workers on first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Materials and Methods

A descriptive quantitative study was conducted between June and October 2018 in 22 Family Health Centers in a city in Ceará, Brazil with 186 community agents grouped as follows: a group that has already received training on these matters and another group that has not had such training. For data collection, a questionnaire containing the following items was administered: 1) sample characterization; 2) questions on cardiopulmonary resuscitation; 4) questions on first aid; 4) confidence scale.

Results

A significant difference among both groups was found in questions related to the knowledge of the four items, especially for explaining CPR, checking for responsiveness of an unconscious person, the sequence for placing hands and arms in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and rotating resuscitators. Regarding first aid, a statistically significant difference was also found in four items related to first aid questions when attending a victim in an emergency such as convulsions, drowning and choking in children. Both groups showed low confidence to intervene in cardiac, neurological and respiratory emergencies.

Conclusions

Research results indicate that there is a lack of knowledge among community health workers to respond effectively to situations involving cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid, which is also associated with low confidence to perform interventions in emergencies.

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