Effects of a psychological first aid simulated training for pregnant flood victims on disaster relief worker's knowledge, competence, and self-efficacy

To develop a simulation-based psychological first aid (PFA) education program for disaster relief workers and verify its impact on their PFA knowledge, PFA performance competence, and self-efficacy. Relief workers should be provided with systematic education on their required knowledge and skills; however, PFA training for relief workers is lacking, which results in ineffective mental health support during disaster situations. This study adopted a non-equivalent control group pre-posttest quasi-experimental design. Thirty relief workers from mental health welfare centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province participated. The experimental group received a PFA lecture, a simulation-based PFA education program, and access to the Psychological Life Support (PLS) mobile application, which provides information on disaster situations and PFA techniques. The comparison group received a PFA lecture. The control group was provided with self-learning PFA materials. Among the three groups, the experimental group showed the greatest improvement in PFA knowledge, PFA performance competence, and self-efficacy from pretest to posttest, which was statistically significant. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of the simulation-based PFA education program combined with a PFA lecture and the PLS mobile app as complementary methods to assist relief workers in applying PFA in disaster situations. •Mental health supports for pregnant women affected by the flood is critical to maternal health.•Relief workers may have difficulty performing PFA for pregnant women at the disaster site.•A simulation-based education may improve the relief workers’ performance in providing PFA for pregnant women.