Effective Hospital-Wide Education in Hemorrhage Control

Uncontrolled hemorrhage is the leading cause of potentially preventable traumatic death. Bleeding victims must receive immediate medical attention to save lives, and the first opportunity to control bleeding after trauma often comes from bystanders. Educating the general public is important for improving outcomes for hemorrhaging victims, and it is imperative for all people, including those with no clinical training, to have the knowledge to respond until trained medical specialists arrive.

An 8-minute educational module was deployed to all hospital employees and included information on the location and contents of hemorrhage control bags in the hospital and how to use the materials in the bags to respond to uncontrolled hemorrhage. A pre-post questionnaire was administered with the module to evaluate effectiveness. McNemar tests were used to compare the responses and evaluate effectiveness of the education.

Eighty-four percent of eligible employees (n = 4,845) completed the module and all items on the questionnaires. Three-quarters of respondents provided direct or ancillary care to patients, and one-quarter worked in nonclinical roles. On average, 57% of questions were answered correctly in the pre-questionnaire and 98% were answered correctly in the post-questionnaire. The module was effective for all employees regardless of clinical training.

There is currently no succinct hemorrhage control education available that can be deployed across a large workplace environment. Results demonstrate that the brief learning module was effective in educating all employees in the basics of hemorrhage control. The module could be deployed in clinical and nonclinical settings.