Learning Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Using an Interactive Method for Students of an Elementary School in Indonesia

The prevalence of cardiac arrest each year in the world is still high, and yet no first aid curriculum is incorporated for students of elementary schools in Indonesia. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education for young people is important to increase awareness and proper initial treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of playing puzzles on the level of knowledge of CPR.

This study had a true experimental design with a randomized pretest/post-test control group with 50 subjects. We randomized subjects through a simple random sampling method. Subjects were divided into two groups: the intervention group (n = 25) and the control group (n = 25). The intervention group was given education via a “playing the puzzle” method, and the control group was educated via a seminar method only. The variables were measured by the level of knowledge of CPR questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and Wilcoxon signed rank and Mann-Whitney tests, with α = 0.05.

The level of knowledge about CPR as analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed rank test had a significant p value (= 0.000; p < 0.05) in both groups. The differences between the two groups as analyzed with the MannWhitney test showed pretest results of p = 0.319 (> 0.05) and post-test results of p = 0.351 (> 0.05). From these results, it is clear that playing a puzzle and a seminar method can both increase the level of knowledge about CPR among elementary school students, with no significant differences between the two groups.

Playing a puzzle can be alternative and fun way to educate young people to learn CPR. It can encourage the students to look for the meaning in the picture and increase their curiosity. As a suggestion, we have to control the atmosphere of the class to become more conducive when playing the puzzle.