Recruiting Medical Students for a First Responder Project in the Social Age: Direct Contact Still Outperforms Social...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Public Health
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Effective recruitment of first responders (FRs) is vital for project success.
• FRs include trained laypersons and professionals with a duty to help.
• Social media is often used for rapid communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficiency of social media versus direct contact for recruiting FRs.
• To test the hypothesis that social media recruitment is more efficient.

Main Methods:

• A prospective observational study informed 600 medical students about FR opportunities during lectures or CPR courses.
• Recruitment was also conducted via Facebook, reaching approximately 1,000 students.
• An online questionnaire surveyed recruited students on their recruitment source.

Main Results:

• Out of 63 registered student FRs, 59 responded to the survey.
• Only 15.3% of student FRs were recruited via social media.
• The majority (78.0%) were recruited through direct, face-to-face contact.

Conclusions:

• Direct personal contact remains the most effective method for recruiting medical students as FRs.
• Social media's reach does not compensate for the impact of expert-led personal contact.
• Future FR recruitment strategies should prioritize direct engagement.