Online Program

295224
Increasing knowledge and practical skills in CPR, first aid, and basic emergency care in hawassa, Ethiopia: A workshop


Monday, November 4, 2013

Elizabeth Wendt, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI
Selamawit Zewdie, Ph.D Student, Department of Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Heidi Busse, MPH, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Mary Jean Erschen-Cooke, RN, BSN, CPEN, UW Hospital and Clinics/American Family Children's Hospital, Madison, WI
Girma Tefera, MD, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Purpose: To educate Ethiopian youth at the Awassa Children's Project about the importance of natural disaster preparedness, wound care and bandaging, compression only CPR, and basic hygiene in an interactive and engaging workshop. In addition, youth should feel empowered to use the skills they have learned and share this knowledge with other community members.

Methods: The information is delivered in a four part workshop given over a three hour time span. The workshop includes games, role playing scenarios, demonstrations, and other interactive methods of communication that interest the 12-16 year old audience the workshop is designed for.

Results/Outcomes: The youth at Awassa Children's Project were able to demonstrate practical skills in all four previously identified areas as well as verbally answer questions each of the topic areas discussed in the workshop. Pre-workshop written assessment showed a huge lack of knowledge in the four areas discussed, particularly CPR and wound care/bandaging. Post-workshop verbal assessment revealed a drastic improvement in knowledge; however, statistical significance could not be determined due to the absence of a written post-workshop assessment.

Conclusions: Youth in rural Ethiopia sorely lack knowledge about basic emergency care skills. In addition, few adults possess these skills/knowledge and little is done to help youth feel empowered to know these skills. The workshop written and administered in Hawassa, Ethiopia, was shown to be effective in this original implementation and would serve as an effective model for future endeavors in educating rural populations about emergency care skills on a global scale.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education

Learning Objectives:
Identify barriers to health care access in participant's own community and ways to circumvent these barriers to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Demonstrate skills in compression only CPR, proper wound care, bandaging, and splinting techniques. Demonstrate proper hand washing techniques and oral hygiene techniques as well as know when to use these skills. Identify major natural disasters in participant's local community and know how to remain safe under various disaster conditions. Demonstrate an increased sense of empowerment to both use the skills learned in the workshop as well as share the information learned with other community members.

Keyword(s): Access to Health Care, Emergency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have completed the necessary coursework at the University of Wisconsin - Madison for a undergraduate minor in Global Public Health. In addition, I am the author of the workshop described in this abstract. The workshop was reviewed and approved by three advisors at UW -Madison that all have extensive experience with emergency care in Ethiopia. Finally, I administered this workshop myself in Hawassa, Ethiopia, in June.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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