Enhancing first-aid self-efficacy: A randomized trial comparing three interactive educational ınterventions

Effective first-aid education is a critical public health strategy to reduce the burden on emergency services. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of three interactive first-aid training modalities (case-, video-, and drama-based) on university students' first-aid self-efficacy.

A three-arm randomized controlled trial with a pretest-post-test design was conducted. The study included 93 university students, randomly assigned to three intervention groups (n = 31 each). The intervention groups received six core first-aid topics delivered through case-, video-, or drama-based methods, while the control group received unstructured education. Data were collected using the "First Aid Self-Efficacy Scale." Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of covariance to compare post-test scores while controlling for baseline differences.

More than 95% of the participants were unmarried, and more than 50% in each study group were female. Post-test mean scale scores were highest in the case-based group (194.16 ± 25.17), followed by the video-based (190.61 ± 24.08), drama-based (168.22 ± 54.37), and unstructured groups (162.29 ± 45.19). Baseline sociodemographic assessments revealed a statistically significant difference in gender distribution across groups (p = 0.008). However, after adjusting for these baseline scores, the study results showed no statistically significant differences between the three interactive training groups in total first-aid self-efficacy or its subdimensions at post-test (p > 0.050). While all groups demonstrated a longitudinal improvement in self-efficacy scores from preintervention to postintervention, no single interactive method demonstrated statistical superiority over the others.

Interactive first-aid training, regardless of the specific modality, is effective in enhancing students' self-efficacy. These findings suggest that educators can flexibly employ a range of interactive strategies to achieve comparable outcomes in prehospital emergency care training. Interactive first-aid training meets essential health policy benchmarks for emergency preparedness, offering educators flexible, effective, and interchangeable modalities to enhance public self-efficacy.