"When you're hurt and you need serious help you call 999." Educating children about emergency services and appropriate use of 999: An evaluation study of the Blue Light Hub app.
BMJ Open
; 14(6): e079214, 2024 Jun 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38858135
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
In the face of unprecedented demand, the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust developed 'Blue Light Hub' a new app to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our overarching aim was to examine the effectiveness of the app.DESIGN:
Primary school-aged children from three schools in South Wales, UK, played with the app for 2 hours over 2 weeks in class time. Children completed quizzes to assess their knowledge and awareness of, and confidence in engaging with, emergency services before and after using the app.PARTICIPANTS:
Our evaluation focused on N=393 children who completed both the pre-test and post-test quizzes. On average, children were 8-9 years old (median school year, Year 4); 47.8% were male and 50.9% were female.RESULTS:
After using the app, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children who knew of appropriate actions to take in non-emergency scenarios, χ2(1) = 26.01, and could provide a question a call handler would ask them if they called 999, χ2(1) = 13.79. There was also an increase in the proportion of children who could identify an National Health Service (NHS) service that could help them if they were unwell, χ2(1) = 33.31, name different roles in the NHS, χ2(1) = 12.80 and knew how dialling 111 could help them χ2(1) = 90.05 (all p values<0.001).CONCLUSION:
To our knowledge, Blue Light Hub is the first app of its kind designed to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that the app supports children's knowledge and awareness of emergency services.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Emergency Medical Services
/
Mobile Applications
Limits:
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
BMJ Open
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: