“When you're hurt and you need serious help you call 999” Educating children about emergency services and appropriate use of 999: An evaluation study of the Blue Light Hub app

Paine, Amy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9025-3719 and Maclean, Fiona 2024. “When you're hurt and you need serious help you call 999” Educating children about emergency services and appropriate use of 999: An evaluation study of the Blue Light Hub app. BMJ Open 14 (6) , e079214. 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079214

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Abstract

Objectives. In the face of unprecedented demand, the Welsh Ambulance Service developed ‘Blue Light Hub’: a new app to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our overarching aim was to examine the effectiveness of the app. Design. Primary school-aged children from three schools in South Wales, UK, played with the app for 2 hours over 2 weeks in class time. Children completed quizzes to assess their knowledge and awareness of, and confidence engaging with, emergency services before and after using the app. Participants: Our evaluation focused on N = 393 children who completed both the pre- and post-test quizzes. On average, children were 8-9 years (median school year, Year 4); 47.8% were male and 50.9% were female. Results. After using the app, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children who knew of appropriate actions to take in non-emergency scenarios, χ2(1) = 26.01, and could provide a question a call handler would ask them if they called 999, χ2(1) = 13.79. There was also an increase in the proportion of children who could identify an NHS service that could help them if they were unwell, χ2(1) = 33.31, name different roles in the NHS, χ2(1) = 12.80, and knew how dialling 111 could help them χ2(1) = 90.05 (all ps < .001). Conclusion. To our knowledge, Blue Light Hub is the first app of its kind designed to educate primary school-aged children about emergency services. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that the app supports children’s knowledge and awareness of emergency services.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
ISSN:	2044-6055
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 June 2024
Date of Acceptance:	22 May 2024
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2024 15:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169465

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