Exploring effect of psychological first aid education on vocational nursing students: A quasi-experimental study

Background: Psychological first aid (PFA) is an internationally recognized approach to providing initial psy-chological support to the general public by both professionals and non-professionals. With increasing psycho-logical care needs under frequent global disasters, it is urgent to provide PFA training to community rescuers in resource-limited countries. Vocational nursing students account for the largest proportion of the reserve work-force serving the community. However, they were scarcely educated about PFA in public emergencies.Objectives: To evaluate the impacts of PFA training on knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience among vocational nursing students.Design: A quasi-experimental study with pre-posttest comparison.Setting: A provincial vocational college in XXXX.Participants: One hundred and three sophomore vocational nursing students were recruited from a vocational college.Methods: The eligible participants were provided with the PFA educational program developed from interna-tional and national PFA guidelines. Before and after the intervention, researchers used the PFA of Orientation Pre/Post Test questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale to evaluate participants' learning outcomes. The paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to compare the difference in outcomes between the pre-and post-test.Results: After the PFA educational intervention, the participants' scores on PFA-related knowledge and compe-tence significantly increased (p < .001). There were also statistically significant differences in general self -efficacy, total resilience, tenacity, and optimism scores observed between the pre-and post-test (p < .001). However, there was no significant increase in strength scores after the intervention.Conclusions: The PFA training effectively improved vocational nursing students' knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience. Further studies with a control group and follow-ups are needed to explore the long-term effects of PFA education.