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

When defining health education, we define a field examining the overall impact shaping the health awareness of a person which affects their decisions about their own health as well as the impact shaping social phenomena connected with health [9].The educational role of medical staff is of vital importance in the process of restoring health. According to Professor Pdicha, this role concerns the impact on the patient and their environment in order to shape the correct behaviour [10]. Health education is a wide process, covering e.g. life, work, leisure time, and nutrition hygiene. In the process of education appropriate literature can be recommended in this area. However, such a technique may be insufficient nowadays. The free market economy and the private sector provide a lot of educational tools at a substantive level.

Health should be the point of reference in health promotion provided by nurses. It is not only important to invest in one's health, but also in health strengthening as well as improving and, above all, in maintaining health at the same or better level. In this regard health behaviours and a lifestyle supporting health should be promoted by nurses in their community [9].

Nurses should also assist in the development of behaviours conducive to health. They should teach rational nutrition, personal hygiene, recreational activities, proper behaviour for the protection of health, e.g. taking care of mental health hygiene, maintaining a proper relationship between the time spent on work, learning, activity, sleep and rest. Advising people on how to strengthen their own health is becoming more and more important. Promoting and teaching first aid also requires professional qualifications.

Material and Methods.

Bearing in mind that first aid provided on site is crucial for saving human life, the aim of the research was: (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.

In order to answer the above-mentioned assumptions, a questionnaire was chosen as the test method. The survey was conducted from October to December 2014. 121 questionnaires were filled in for the research. Filling in the questionnaires was voluntary and anonymous, and the respondents were informed about the purpose of the survey. Some of the people surveyed were citizens of the town Myszkow and its nearby districts. They were patients making use of emergency medical service as well as the local health service. Another group of the respondents were employees of heath care units. 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.

50 women and 71 men took part in the survey. This was 41% and 59% respectively, out of the total number of the respondents (Fig. 1.).

As far as the level of education is concerned, most of the people interviewed had secondary education, which constituted 71% or 86 respondents. There were 28 people with higher education, and only 7 people with declared primary education.

After the examination of the level of education in relation to the sex of the respondents, it transpired that the most numerous group were men with secondary education, i.e. 50 men compared with 36 women with secondary education. After comparing the numbers in relation to the sex, and not with respect to all the respondents, these values were 72% and 70% respectively. People with primary education were the least numerous groups: women 0, men 7. Most of the interviewed were people living with their family 114, which was 94% of the overall number. People living alone constituted only 6%.

Most of the interviewed were people aged 35 to 50, which was 64% of the surveyed. People aged 18-26 represented 23%.

70% of the respondents were town dwellers. The rural population accounted for 30% of the surveyed.

There were no retired people among the respondents. There were 93 people with a permanent job, which constituted 77% and 28 unemployed people, which accounted for 23%.

Most of the respondents were people with the monthly income ranging from 1700 to 3500 zl they constituted 59%. Only 7 people declared their income of over 3500 zl 6%. There were 43 people with a monthly income up to 1700 zl, representing 36% in relation to all the respondents.

Only 14 people stated that they had never been faced with a situation requiring provision of medical assistance to the injured. They accounted for 12% of the total number of the respondents. Most of the people, representing 88% of the surveyed, had found themselves in such a situation (Fig. 2).

medical nursing education

Fig. 1

Only seven respondents answered that they would not use medical knowledge if they had it, which constituted 6% of the respondents. 83% of the respondents answered that they would use such knowledge in an emergency.

Fig. 2

Out of all the people surveyed, all of them replied that medical knowledge might be useful. Among the interviewed, 35 people did not have family members with chronic disease. It represented 29% of all the respondents. 71% of the surveyed had people with chronic disease in their family.

Fig. 3

Chronic health problems appeared in 36 people from among those interviewed and this represented 30% of the respondents. 70% of the interviewed did not have chronic ailments (Fig. 3).

Among the people participating in the survey, 79 answered that nursing staff was competent enough to provide medical knowledge, which accounted for 66%. 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 (Fig. 4).

The majority of the respondents 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.

In percentage terms, the sum of certain values exceeds 100% due to the fact that some respondents chose more than one answer.

Fig. 4

83% of the respondents answered that the state should ensure the availability of medical knowledge to citizens. 17%, i.e. 21 of those interviewed, believed that the state did not have to care about the availability of medical knowledge to citizens.

Most of the people surveyed claimed that employers should take care of the medical education of their employees in terms of first aid, which constituted 94% of the respondents. 6% of those interviewed believed that the employer did not have to care about the availability of medical education to their employees.

72 people answered that a part of the population could finance their own medical knowledge training. Such a number represented 60% of all the respondents. 40% of the surveyed believed that a part of the population could not finance their own medical knowledge training (Fig. 5).

71 people of all the surveyed answered that they would be willing to pay extra to acquire 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.

Fig. 5

From the above, one can ask a number of questions. Namely: Who is supposed to be the medical educator of the society, and how should this process look like? Should there be organised forms? And, finally, who should be responsible for subsidising first aid knowledge training? These are just a few of numerous questions. An emergency nurse may be of great help in resolving these doubts. Most experts in the field of public health believe that emergency medical service is now a field where turbulent changes are taking place. These changes have an impact on the whole society. The role and tasks of nursing service in solving problems related to health and health problems of the society are taking on an added importance [11]. As our research shows, most of the society is willing to give first aid to the victim in a life-threatening situation. Unfortunately, according to another research, witnesses do not provide this help because they are afraid that their knowledge is not sufficient and can harm the victim. The absence of obligatory training in this field is yet another problem here [12, 13, 14]. Apart from that, the results confirmed that a significant part of the society found themselves in a situation which required the use of first aid in the past. Earlier studies confirm these results [14]. It can be seen that there is a big discrepancy between willingness to give first aid and skills as well as the subjective feelings of accident witnesses. Providing first aid training seems to be a necessity for the whole society in order to update and improve their qualifications. However, a way of funding this training seems to be of vital importance. Therefore, the respondents were asked if they were willing to pay extra for training in first aid. Particularly interesting were the answers of some of the respondents who were of the opinion that the state and employers should take care of medical education. In spite of their conviction, in most cases they would be willing to pay extra for such training. Other studies confirm the opinions of the respondents that there should be more training in first aid. The respondents would also be willing to participate in the costs [14]. Bearing in mind the need of sharing medical knowledge at the highest level, the respondents were asked whether nursing staff was competent to provide such training. Respondents have a very high opinion of the qualifications of nurses in this field since as much as 2/3 of them believe that nurses can provide training in first aid. This shows confidence in the knowledge and skills of nurses, which seem to be the basic link in the contacts of patients with broadly defined medicine. The research has shown that most of the information about first aid is obtained by the respondents through various media. This poses a certain risk because the information found e.g. on the internet is often inaccurate or even misleading. It appears that only medical staff should provide such information because of its high importance. The consequences of incorrect information can be dramatic. With this in mind, it is good news that almost half of the respondents have verified their knowledge by means of courses and training.

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.

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