Abstract

This study was done to assess the knowledge, attitudes and experiences towards pre hospital care among fire fighters in Colombo municipality area. A cross sectional descriptive study was done including all the fire fighters permanently attached to the six stations of fire brigade under Colombo municipality area. A pre tested self administered questionnaire was used as the study instrument. The level of knowledge and the attitude was assessed using separate composite scores.

The response rate of the participants was 92%. Majority was from 31–40 years of age, educated up to A/L and was firefighters according to the rank of their designation. The total marks varied from 40 to 90 giving a mean of 72.5±9.12. While 74.1% of participants had ‘Adequate’ knowledge regarding pre hospital care, 25.9% showed ‘Inadequate’ level. The mean attitude score in the study was 32.5±2.32 out of 40 and all the participants scored more than 25 indicating a ‘Good’ attitude towards pre hospital care.

60% of them had experienced 10 years or more in their carrier and 93.2% had participated in fire disaster drills during their carrier period. There was a significant percentage (14%) of those who had not got any kind of training on first aids by a recognized organization or a person. Only 35.1% had performed adult CPR during disaster situations and the percentage was further less (13.7%) when it comes to child resuscitation.

When majority (74.1%) of the fire fighter’s knowledge on pre hospital trauma care was ‘Adequate’, all the participants showed ‘Good’ attitude towards pre hospital care.

It is recommend conducting in service training programs for fire fighters including disaster drills and simulations in view of providing better service to the community.