Survey reveals school sport risks

Good fun: But are teachers trained for injuries?

Some PE teachers do not have the right skills to deal with a medical emergency on the playing field, suggests a survey.

A questionnaire sent to teachers across Ireland revealed that more than a third of schools did not have a PE teacher with up-to-date first aid knowledge.

When confronted with potentially serious situations, some teachers did not know the right thing to do.

The researchers, from Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, called for more training.

The teachers - from schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic - were tested on various scenarios, including a pupil knocked out during a football match, collapsing after a race, or unable to move after a rugby scrum accident.

They were offered four options and asked to pick the one which best described the action they would take.

Wrong choice

However, a third of PE teachers took the wrong approach when confronted with a collapsed child.

While basic first aid suggests you should check breathing, a third simply suggested putting the child in the "recovery position" or keep them warm and call for an ambulance.

While most teachers knew that the possibility of spinal injury means that a child injured by the collapse of a rugby scrum should only be moved if the neck is immobilised, 5% suggested that the recovery position should again be used - a decision that could have serious consequences.

No phone

The survey also highlighted gaps in the first aid facilities available to PE teachers.

Only a third said that a portable first aid box was always to hand during outside sports.

There is no excuse for any teacher to be left without a mobile phone when they are supervising sport outside school premises, John Matthews, PEAUK

In one in five cases, a telephone was not always available within two minutes - even when the activity was held within school grounds.

This rose to more than half if the sport session was held outside school grounds.

There is no statutory requirement for teachers supervising PE to have a first aid qualification.

This was borne out by the finding that in 33.4% of the schools, there was no PE teacher with up-to-date first aid training.

The researchers, writing in the journal Injury Prevention, said that the study showed clear "deficiencies" in sport injury care in schools.

They said: "The findings highlight the need for basic life support training in school games staff."

John Matthews, the chief executive of the UK Physical Education Association (PEAUK), said that anything that might lead to improvements in safety was to be welcomed.

"Certainly it points towards problems with facilities - there is no excuse for any teacher to be left without a mobile phone when they are supervising sport outside school premises, and they should not have to provide it themselves.

"This is such an important aspect of working in schools - and one of the findings was that PE teachers were very willing to be trained up in first aid."