First aid day at Epoo`s School

The purpose of this functional thesis was to plan and enforce a first aid practice day at Epoo primary school in Porvoo. The goal was to increase students’ knowledge about first aid. Another was to encourage students to use what they have learned in practice. One goal was to our own development in planning and enforcing the teaching situations.

The theoretical ground of this thesis is based on Engeström`s view of planning and implementation of teaching. Dunderfelt`s vision of life cycle psychology was used in what should be considered when teaching students in primary school and how children`s growth affects learning. The Educational content was collected according to a research by the National Institute of Health and Welfare and by the wishes of teachers of the school of Epoo. The base in the first aid day teaching was collected from the Red Cross first aid instructions. First Aid Day implementation was evaluated by observing and interviewing participants.

First aid day was carried out on February 2015 in Porvoo. Students were split into six groups, and lessons were about 45 minutes long. The content of the lesson was almost the same in every group but in some situations the content needed to be changed from the original plan. First aid day went well because we prepared it well and had made exact plans. Based on the evaluation, this day was useful. Teaching and rehearsing was needed in first aid skills.

After every lesson students were asked to rehearse what they have learnt and check the first aid kit contents at home. First aid training days should be added in to school curricula, because there is very little first aid training in schools. Hospitalization and even deaths could be partly prevented by increasing the amount of first aid training in schools. Based on feedback it can be stated that first aid days are also needed in the future.