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Project

Establishing an evidence ecosystem for first aid training in low- and middle income countries to bridge the gap between research and practice.

In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 5,1 million deaths each year are attributable to conditions that could have potentially been addressed by prehospital and emergency care. In that regard, first aid training of laypeople is promoted by the World Bank as a very cost-effective way to decrease the burden of disease and injury. The Belgian Red Cross-Flanders (BRC) is implementing first aid training programs in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, hence the aim of this PhD project is to generate, identify and implement scientific evidence in this field by creating an “evidence ecosystem”. The latter term is used to present the link between the different steps in the production, translation and eventual use of scientific evidence in practice, i.e. evidence synthesis, evidence translation, evidence dissemination, evidence implementation, evidence evaluation and evidence production. Ideally, these steps are connected in a cycle where evidence production again leads to new evidence synthesis. However, in reality many of these steps happen independently by different organizations and do not inform each other. Therefore, this project will work on every step of the cycle, making sure that evidence is being used in practice, and practice informs evidence. More specifically, the following research activities and operational steps are planned for each step of the “evidence ecosystem”: 1) synthesis of evidence through the development of novel topic- and context-specific evidence-based first aid guidelines and the development of a systematic review concerning the impact of first aid training to laypeople, 2) translation of the evidence-based first aid guidelines and the best available evidence into evidence-based training packages, 3) dissemination of evidence by training local trainers in BRC’s partnering countries using the training packages (in collaboration with BRC’s International Cooperations Department), 4) implementation of evidence by ensuring that the training packages are used in practice in BRC’s partnering countries in sub-Saharan Africa (in collaboration with BRC’s International Cooperations Department), 5) evaluation of evidence through data collection and analysis on helping behavior, injury types and first aid competences, and 6) production of evidence by conducting a randomized controlled field trial in Rwanda to measure the effectiveness of first aid training, delivered via a blended learning approach, on educational outcomes.

Date:26 Oct 2021 →  Today
Keywords:First Aid Training, Evidence-Based Practice, Evidence Ecosystem, Low- and Middle Income Countries, Blended Learning
Disciplines:Public health care not elsewhere classified
Project type:PhD project