Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2018
The “Stop the Bleed” campaign advocates for non-medical personnel to be trained in basic hemorrhage control. However, it is not clear what type of education or the duration of instruction needed to meet that requirement. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of a brief hemorrhage control educational curriculum on the willingness of laypersons to respond during a traumatic emergency.
This “Stop the Bleed” education initiative was conducted by the University of Texas Health San Antonio Office of the Medical Director (San Antonio, Texas USA) between September 2016 and March 2017. Individuals with formal medical certification were excluded from this analysis. Trainers used a pre-event questionnaire to assess participants knowledge and attitudes about tourniquets and responding to traumatic emergencies. Each training course included an individual evaluation of tourniquet placement, 20 minutes of didactic instruction on hemorrhage control techniques, and hands-on instruction with tourniquet application on both adult and child mannequins. The primary outcome in this study was the willingness to use a tourniquet in response to a traumatic medical emergency.
Of 236 participants, 218 met the eligibility criteria. When initially asked if they would use a tourniquet in real life, 64.2% (140/218) responded “Yes.” Following training, 95.6% (194/203) of participants responded that they would use a tourniquet in real life. When participants were asked about their comfort level with using a tourniquet in real life, there was a statistically significant improvement between their initial response and their response post training (2.5 versus 4.0, based on 5-point Likert scale; P<.001).
In this hemorrhage control education study, it was found that a short educational intervention can improve laypersons’ self-efficacy and reported willingness to use a tourniquet in an emergency. Identified barriers to act should be addressed when designing future hemorrhage control public health education campaigns. Community education should continue to be a priority of the “Stop the Bleed” campaign.
RossEM, RedmanTT, MappJG, BrownDJ, TanakaK, CooleyCW, KharodCU, WamplerDA. Stop the Bleed: The Effect of Hemorrhage Control Education on Laypersons’ Willingness to Respond During a Traumatic Medical Emergency. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(2):127–132.
Conflicts of interest/disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or the United States Government. “I am a military service member. This work was prepared as part of my official duties. Title 17, USC, §105 provides that ‘Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the US Government.’ Title 17, USC, §101 defines a US Government work as a work prepared by a military service member or employee of the US Government as part of that person’s official duties.” The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.