Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends involving lay people in prehospital care. Several\ntraining programmes have been implemented to build lay responder first aid skills. Findings show that most\nprogrammes significantly improved participantsâ?? first aid skills. However, there is a gap in knowledge of what factors\ninfluence the use of these skills in real situations. The current study aimed to describe police officersâ?? views on and\nexperiences of factors that facilitate or hinder their use of trained first aid skills at work.\nMethods: Thirty-four police officers participated in five focus group discussions. A structured interview guide was\nused to collect data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative\ncontent analysis.\nResults: We identified five categories of facilitators or hindrances. Training exposure was considered a facilitator;\nwork situation and hospital atmosphere were considered hindrances; and the physical and social environments and\nthe resources available for providing first aid could be either facilitators or hindrances.\nConclusion: Practical exposure during training is perceived to improve police officersâ?? confidence in applying their\nfirst aid skills at work. However, contextual factors related to the working environment need to be addressed to\npromote this transfer of skills.
Loading....