Exploring effect of psychological first aid education on vocational nursing students: A quasi-experimental study

Psychological first aid (PFA) is an internationally recognized approach to providing initial psychological support to the general public by both professionals and non-professionals. With increasing psychological care needs under frequent global disasters, it is urgent to provide PFA training to community rescuers in resource-limited countries. Vocational nursing students account for the largest proportion of the reserve workforce serving the community. However, they were scarcely educated about PFA in public emergencies.

To evaluate the impacts of PFA training on knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience among vocational nursing students.

A quasi-experimental study with pre-posttest comparison.

A provincial vocational college in XXXX.

One hundred and three sophomore vocational nursing students were recruited from a vocational college.

The eligible participants were provided with the PFA educational program developed from international and national PFA guidelines. Before and after the intervention, researchers used the PFA of Orientation Pre/Post Test questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale to evaluate participants' learning outcomes. The paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to compare the difference in outcomes between the pre- and post-test.

After the PFA educational intervention, the participants' scores on PFA-related knowledge and competence significantly increased (p < .001). There were also statistically significant differences in general self-efficacy, total resilience, tenacity, and optimism scores observed between the pre- and post-test (p < .001). However, there was no significant increase in strength scores after the intervention.

The PFA training effectively improved vocational nursing students' knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience. Further studies with a control group and follow-ups are needed to explore the long-term effects of PFA education.