“Your body must always be perpendicular to the victim’s chest”, emphasised a professor as second-year nursing students demonstrated how to perform chest compressions on a basic life support manikin in the event of a cardiac arrest. Around 600 second-year nursing students from the Lisbon School of Nursing, Universidade de Lisboa (ESEUL), along with Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering and Mining and Energy Resources Engineering undergraduate students at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, gathered for the first interdisciplinary initiative focused on risk prevention and initial response to accidents in a laboratory setting. The event took place on 29 and 30 April at Técnico’s Alameda campus.
“Our students spend a lot of time in laboratories and, in their future careers, they will be working in companies where knowledge of first aid in the event of an accident is essential”, said Ana Paula Serro, a professor at Técnico and coordinator of the activity. “We thought it would be much more interesting to have peer-to-peer training rather than having a senior student give a presentation to everyone”, she added. Mafalda Fagulha, a Chemical Engineering student, found learning with other students “quite fun”. “I liked the way they presented the topics; they were quite direct and used less colloquial language”, she explained.
Carla Nascimento, a senior lecturer at the Lisbon School of Nursing (emergency and trauma), believes that, as well as equipping Técnico students to act in first-aid situations in a laboratory setting, it allows nursing students to develop “oral communication skills, content mastery, teamwork, critical thinking, and also creativity and innovation in their presentations”. For Carla Nascimento, this is an “innovative experience” for nursing students too, who, for the first time, are stepping out of their “comfort zone”.
Despite some initial nerves, Francisco Barrego, one of the students who participated in a basic life support demonstration, described his “first experience” of communication in nursing as “interesting and productive”. “We only begin our nursing internships in the third year. Although we weren’t working with a patient or casualty, starting to communicate about our field with people of our age made things much easier”, he explained.
Additionally, the student felt that the complementary training provided by Técnico’s Safety, Hygiene and Health Office (NSHS) on safety during urban fires and earthquakes was “well structured”. This activity included an outdoor demonstration on how different types of fire extinguishers work and how to use them properly. “I think it’s important. People underestimate that in their daily lives”, said the student.
Reflecting on the initiative, Ana Paula Serro noted that the activities were “very well received by the students”, and she concluded that using a common language “helped make the knowledge easier to grasp”. Carla Nascimento suggested that a future edition with a more “demonstrative and practical” focus would be very interesting. This activity was part of the celebrations for World Day for Safety and Health at Work, celebrated on 28 April in memory of victims of workplace accidents and occupational diseases.
