THE EFFECT OF THE INCLUSION OF FIRST AID IN TEACHER EDUCATION

This article aims to analyze, through a questionnaire, future teachers' knowledge and opinions regarding first aid, and to assess the inclusion of a mandatory first-aid course, the content of which was influenced by statistical data of the South Bohemian Emergency Medical Service and teachers' statistics (Hruskova et al., 2022). Students of the Faculty of Education (N=227) from South Bohemia (municipalities with different populations and, with regard to the gender ratio in students, mostly women) filled out questionnaires before and after a first-aid course in 2023. Through the questionnaire survey (a) significant differences were found in the mean values of knowledge of first aid in sum between all subgroups of students (p <= 0.05), (b) in the level of knowledge of first aid for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), traumas, and acute conditions of chronic diseases (p <= 0.05), and (c) in the level of knowledge of each first-aid item individually (p <= 0.05). In general, completing our first-aid course is essential for all our students (p <= 0.05), even for those who have already completed some previous first-aid course.