Teachers’ Awareness Regarding Emergency Management of Epistaxis inside the School; Alahssa, Saudi Arabia

Background: Epistaxis is one of the commonest emergencies encountered by ENT physicians as well as to family and emergency physicians. It is common among school children as they are easily injured during different school activities. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding first aid management of epistaxis among school teachers in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted in November 2017 among Saudi school teachers in AlAhssa region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by a well-structured online questionnaire which was designed including questions about the biographical data of the teacher, questions about the past knowledge of the emergency management of epistaxis and questions assessing the awareness of the method applied as a management of epistaxis. Result: We received 485 valid responses. 76% of teachers were female, 93% worked in public and 40% were in primary schools. 54% of participants had received information about first aid to stop nose bleeding or hemorrhage. 67% said that their students experienced epistaxis before. Interestingly, 15% said they would not try to stop the bleeding, and only 25% said they would press on the cartilaginous part of nose. However, a higher percentage (57%) knew that they should tilt the head forward.