The introduction of practical exercises of rescuing a drowning person within the subject of basic clinic medicine and first aid for students of health sciences as a challenge for interdisciplinary cooperation

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, Zdravstvena pot 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

^a Corresponding author: damjan.slabe@zf.uni-lj.si

Abstract

Drowning, being one of the most common causes of death is a public health problem. The concept of the drowning chain of survival puts great emphasis on providing security. Rescuing a drowning person in the stage of impaired judgement is a dangerous action. A rescuer can put at risk their own life at this stage. Health workers are potentially more exposed to this risk. In the field of education of health workers interdisciplinarity is one of the key concepts. Within the subject Basics of the Clinical Medicine and First Aid, we provided students the experience of saving a drowning person in a simulated exercise, thus trying to persuade them to choose safer strategies of rescuing. The subject of our research were students of health sciences. 506 students solved the questionnaire. After having performed a practical exercise of saving a drowning person, students choose less risky strategies of rescuing a person in the stage of impaired judgement. Students thus gain the experience of rescuing drowning people in more difficult circumstances and their awareness of the importance of security increases after the exercise, which helps to reduce the number of lives risked in accidents.