Norwegian study shows young children are able to learn and perform basic first aid

This is a 'do-it-yourself bandage, but Norwegian research shows that children as young as four or five years old are more capable of doing basic first aid than we previously thought. (Image: Greg Younger from Fort Collins, USA, via Wikimedia Commons)

Pre-school children at a kindergarten in Bergen, Norway, were taught first aid using the 'five-finger-rule' system: look at the person, talk to them, touch them to try to wake them up, call emergency services, and lastly, stay and give comfort. The children also learnt how to put each other into recovery position and how to keep an airway open.

Dr Bollig from Department of Surgical Sciences, Haukeland University Hospital, explained, "Two months later the children were still able to work out whether a person was unconscious or asleep and whether an accident victim was breathing. The children could also remember the phone number of the emergency services and accurately describe their location." In a separate test, when one of their teachers pretended to lose consciousness the children acted as a group to put her into recovery position.

Dr Bollig suggested, "First aid training should begin in the kindergarten, via play, and be reinforced throughout school to increase confidence and encourage people to provide first aid should the need arise."

Source: Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine