Does community emergency care initiative improve the knowledge and skill of healthcare workers and laypersons in basic emergency care in India?

Background: Due to lack of training in emergency care, basic emergency care in India is still in its infancy. We designed All India Institute of Medical Sciences basic emergency care course (AIIMS BECC) to address the issue. Aim: To improve the knowledge and skill of healthcare workers and laypersons in basic emergency care and to identify impact of the course. Materials and Methods: Prospective study conducted over a period of 4 years. The target groups were medical and nonmedical personnel. Provider AIIMS BECC is of 1 day duration including lectures on cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, choking, and special scenarios. Course was disseminated via lectures, audio-visual aids, and mannequin training. For analysis, the participants were categorized on the basis of their education and profession. A pre- and a post-course evaluation were done and individual scores were given out of 20 and compared among all the groups and P value was calculated. Results: A total of 1283 subjects were trained. 99.81% became providers and 2.0% were trained as instructors. There was a significant improvement in knowledge among all the participants irrespective of their education level including medicos/nonmedicos. However, participants who had higher education (graduates and postgraduates) and/or belonged to medical field had better knowledge gain as compared to those who had low level of education (≤12th standard) and were nonmedicos. Conclusion: BECC is an excellent community initiative to improve knowledge and skill of healthcare and laypersons in providing basic emergency care.