An evaluation of first aid information and attitudes of police officers working in the city center of sivas

Police can be under attack, can have an accident when they go to a case, or come across an injured person at any time. A timely and right intervention is of paramount importance to prevent casualties and deaths.This is a descriptive study to evaluate first aid information and attitudes of police officers who work in the city center of Sivas. Under the light of findings, it is aimed that this study may contribute to Sivas Police Department and General Directorate of Turkish National Police in the field of first aid.This study has been conducted between April 2009 and February 2010. The data were obtained through survey method. At the time of the study, 1074 police officers were on duty, and among them, a total of 671 officers (62,4%), including 626 males and 45 females, participated in. The data were analyzed by using SPSS software; ?Mann Whitney U Test? and ?Kruskall Walls Analysis? have been performed.Only 0,7% of participants have been successful with 86 points of more, while 62,3% of them had a success rate between 61-85 points. When the successful answers were examined, vast majority of participants (97,8%) gave the right response to the first question of ?what is first aid??. The sixteenth question was the one that most participants (96.7%) were unsuccessful. The question was ?what is the best first aid intervention to a person when his/her throat is stuffed with a piece of meal, and starts to cough??.Only gender is found statistically significantly different among participants. The success rate for female officers is significantly different from male officers? success rates. Differences between education, ranks, police divisions, age, taking a first aid course, duration of service in police department have not found statistically significant.Keywords: Police, Sivas city, first aid, information and attitude