"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." ~ Nelson Mandela Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is the third-leading cause of death in industrialized countries. In Europe, it affects over 350,000 people annually. In an OHCA occurrence, provision of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) within the first 2-3 minutes could save 100,000 of those people. However, timely access to healthcare, which is a key principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, is not certain, since timely CPR would have to be provided by bystanders, who would have to be properly trained laypeople, rather than Emergency Medical Technicians, not likely to be on the scene during those first critical minutes. The realistic and sustainable solution to this problem is to train a sufficiently large portion of the general population in CPR (roughly 15%). The most suitable group to receive this training are school children, whose main activity is learning, and who will readily absorb new knowledge and skills. Respectively, the optimum environment in which to provide education and training is the school environment, which offers equal access to all children, regardless of financial, social, religious, racial or ethnic background and allows them to function as multipliers. Schools also provide a steady supply of potential trainers – the teachers whose role is to educate children. In 2016, the “Kids Save Lives – ERC position statement on school children education in CPR”, which was endorsed by the World Health Organization, presented this information and suggested training school children above the age of 12 in CPR in all schools. Other research proposes the age of 10 as the minimum age for efficient CPR training, based on physical, cognitive and emotional characteristics. Project L.I.F.E.F.O.R.C.E. (Learning Initiative For Elementary school Fun Oriented Resuscitation Coaching Europewide) advocates the development of a learning methodology, educational tools and e-learning environment to pre-train pupils aged 6-10 years old in elements of CPR using innovative, learning-by-doing activities, to prepare them for proper CPR training later on. It will also cultivate the ideals of solidarity and volunteering and will promote a culture of prevention, well-being and healthy lifestyle across Europe. The project will also provide teachers with innovative non-formal teaching methods, which will not only apply to CPR training, but also to teaching other subjects, bringing added value to its outcomes. To achieve this, the project will be implemented in elementary schools in the 4 participating countries, taking into account linguistic, cultural and other particulars. It will also organize a series of events and activities to demonstrate its outputs and impact, not only to school children and teachers, but also to head teachers, parents, pedagogists, stakeholders and policy makers on local, national and European level. The project outputs and results will be thoroughly disseminated through a series of carefully planned activities, such as social and cultural events, conferences and publications, spanning long after the project’s end, to promote sustainability and to ensure that it will reach the maximum number of interested parties. The project will be implemented in five phases, as described below: 1st: Overview of nursery and primary school educational systems in European countries. It will focus on the educational systems in European countries with special attention to elements that are relevant - in some capacity - with the pre-training of 6-10 year old school children in Basic Life Support and first aid. 2nd: Development of methodology to convert BLS skills into suitable, innovative educational activities. This phase will identify a common ground on which to build the interdisciplinary methodology for the pre-training of 6-10 year old school children in Basic Life Support and first aid, using experiential, interactive activities, in order to promote critical thinking and enhance skill retention. 3rd: Educational material for the pre-training of children. This phase will provide the educational material that will deliver the actual cognitive and behavioral skills to school children, using innovative, learning by doing activities. 4th: Educational material for training the trainers. This phase involves the development of a Training the Trainers material, which will enable the trainers to effectively deliver pre-training of children. 5th: Development of e-learning platform, multimedia, app to deliver the on-line learning modules. The long-term plan of the project partners is to demonstrate the effectiveness of pre-training of 6-10 year old school children in CPR and to campaign for inclusion of CPR-first aid training in the national curricula of the EU member-countries, in order to increase the number of future CPR providers and help save as many lives of OHCA victims.
L.I.F.E.F.O.R.C.E. project anticipates to the development of a sustainable learning methodology supported by educational material and tools to pre-train pupils aged 6-10 years old in elements, such as safely approach a collapsed person, assess that person's condition, correctly call the emergency medical services, learn the CPR algorithm, that will prepare them for proper CPR training. Applying the foreseen methodology will cultivate the ideals of solidarity and volunteering, and will promote a culture of prevention and healthy lifestyle, which in turn can drive down healthcare costs across Europe. School environment, open to children of all social, racial or religious groups, is the ideal setting for implementing a concept that requires training of pupils. Therefore, L.I.F.E.F.O.R.C.E. project aims also to the development of a trainer’s educational material and handbook, contributing to elementary schools’ teachers vocational and professional development, enabling them to effectively conduct the pre-training on BLS and first aid skills. Achieving those two main project aims set the prerequisites for starting discussions on integrating Basic Life Support and First Aid training in the national curricula of all European countries.
In Europe, more than 350K patients are affected annually by sudden Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA), with a 2%-10% rate of survival. Increasing the rate of survival requires training of a sufficient percentage of the general population in CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Such training would ideally start at a young age. In Europe, initiatives address CPR teaching to 12-year old children or older. Those children, in comparison to adults, demonstrate extreme attentiveness and motivation to accept new concepts. Educating children on BLS and CPR provides a great opportunity to train a large population of future adults, who will be the future life-savers, increases their self-esteem, altruism and sense of responsibility and the spontaneity of a response in case of a cardiac arrest in the future. Researchers suggest that children of medium build under the age of 12 do not possess the required physical strength to effectively perform CPR, although they can comprehend certain aspects of BLS training. Therefore, a different approach is required to educate younger children, focusing on pedagogy and on formulating a suitable methodology and educational tools to deliver such pre-training.