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. 2022 Feb 14;23(2):186-191.
doi: 10.5811/westjem.2021.12.52581.

Educating and Empowering Inner-City High School Students in Bleeding Control

Millicent Okereke  1 , Jessica Zerzan  1 , Elizabeth Fruchter  1 , Valerie Pallos  1 , Maya Seegers  1 , Mehr Quereshi  1 , Lynn Model  1 , Monique Jenkins  1 , Gia Ramsey  1 , Christine Rizkalla  1
Affiliations

Educating and Empowering Inner-City High School Students in Bleeding Control

Millicent Okereke et al. West J Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Introduction: Unintentional bleeding is the leading cause of death in people 1-44 years of age in the United States. The Stop the Bleed (STB) campaign is a nationwide course that teaches the public to ensure their own safety, call 911, find the bleeding injury, and achieve temporary hemorrhage control by several techniques. Although the national campaign for the training course was inspired by active shooter events, the training can be applied to motor vehicle accidents and small-scale penetrating and gunshot wounds. Extending the audience to inner-city high school students in a violence-prone neighborhood has the potential to save lives if they are first on the scene.

Objectives: We hypothesized that students would have a greater degree of comfort, willingness, and preparedness to intervene in acute bleeding after taking the course.

Methods: This was a prospective, interventional pilot study in one inner-city high school in Brooklyn, New York. Students were given the option to participate in the STB course with pre- and post-surveys. We recruited 286 students from physical education or health education class to take a 50-minute bleeding control training course. Mean age was 15.7 years old. Students were divided into groups of 20-25 and taught by 2-3 emergency medicine, pediatric, or trauma surgery STB instructors. Each course included 2-3 skills stations for placing a tourniquet, wound packing, and pressure control.

Results: Prior to the course, only 43.8% of the students reported being somewhat likely or very likely to help an injured person who was bleeding. After the course, this increased to 80.8% of students even if no bleeding control kit was available. Additionally, there were significant improvements in self-rated comfort level from pre- to post-course 45.4% to 76.5%, and in self-rated preparedness from 25.1% to 83.8%. All three measures showed statistically significant improvement, P <.0001.

Conclusion: Teaching the STB course to high school students from a community with high levels of violence resulted in increased comfort level, willingness, and preparedness to act to control bleeding. If these opinions translate into action, students' willingness to act could decrease pre-hospital blood loss and empower youth to perform life-saving interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. No author has professional or financial relationships with any companies that are relevant to this study. There are no conflicts of interest or sources of funding to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pre-post intervention demonstrating changes in comfort level and willingness to render aid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Self-reported concerns.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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