Enhancing Basic First Aid Awareness among College Students Through a Multimedia-Based Educational Intervention
Abstract
Basic first aid awareness is an important component of health literacy and emergency preparedness because appropriate initial responses may help reduce complications while professional assistance is being obtained. This study examines the effectiveness of a multimedia-based educational intervention in improving basic first aid awareness among college students in a private university in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines, during Academic Year 2025–2026. A quantitative one-group pretest–posttest action research design was used with 15 purposively selected college students who demonstrated low baseline awareness. Data were collected using a researcher-developed 45-item Basic First Aid Awareness Questionnaire covering open wounds, closed wounds, and sudden illnesses. The instrument underwent expert content validation and pilot testing, obtaining a Content Validity Ratio of 1.00 and Cronbach's alpha of .902. Participants completed an eight-week multimedia-based intervention involving educational videos, digital images, infographics, and contextualized classroom presentations delivered three times weekly. Descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to analyze the data. Mean awareness increased from 1.963 (SD = 0.153) before the intervention to 4.167 (SD = 0.162) after the intervention. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest scores, z = −3.41, p < .001. The findings indicate substantial improvement in measured first aid awareness following the intervention. Given the absence of a control group and the small purposive sample, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary evidence of intervention-associated improvement. Higher education institutions may consider integrating structured multimedia resources into first aid and health education programs, while future studies should use larger samples and controlled designs.