Effect of an Educational Intervention on Knowledge and Skills of Police Officers Towards Prehospital Care for Road Traffic Accident Victims in Southwestern Uganda

Abstract

Background: Road traffic injuries pose a significant public health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Uganda. Due to limited emergency medical services, police officers and bystanders provide inadequate prehospital care, contributing to high mortality rates of road traffic accident victims. The study evaluated the effect of an educational intervention on the knowledge and skills of police officers towards prehospital care for RTA victims in Southwestern Uganda. Methodology: The study was conducted at Mbarara Central Police Station using a quasi-experimental design. We recruited a convenience sample of 45 participants who had served for at least 6 months and provided informed consent to participate. Data were collected using a validated structured questionnaire and checklist. Analysis was done using Stata version 17, with variables scoring a p-value of 0.001, which was considered significant utilizing a t-test. Results: The majority (80%) of the participants were men, mean age was 41.2±11.3 years. Baseline knowledge and skills in prehospital care were low, with mean scores of 50.7%±16.8 and 34.0%±8.1 respectively. Post-intervention, there was a significant improvement in knowledge by 15.4% and skills by 46.4%, which was statistically significant (P< 0.001). Improvement was most notable in the secondary survey by 67% for skills and least in the assessment for major bleeding by 18.5% for knowledge. Conclusion and recommendations: The study found that an educational intervention greatly enhanced police officers’ prehospital care skills for RTA victims, recommending regular training for Police officers as first responders.