School as a place for learning first aid

Objectives: to implement an educational strategy about first aid in students from public and private schools and to verify their knowledge before and after the educational intervention. Method: quantitative, descriptive, exploratory research, carried out with 48 ninth-year students. In order to verify students' knowledge, ten objective and multiple choice questions were used pre and post-test. The collection was carried out from September to December 2016, totaling six meetings. Data analysis was carried out using PASW Statistics for Windows software, version 20.0. McNemar and Chi-square tests were used. Results: there was a statistically significant difference between the correct answers in the post-test questions about choking (p2=0.008), electric shock (p2=0.018), hemorrhage (p2=0.004), and cardiorespiratory arrest (p2=0.041). The average of correct answers in public and private schools were, respectively, 70.0% and 85.5%. Conclusion: students obtained significant learning through the educational intervention, emphasizing the relevance of including the discipline of first aid in schools.