Construction of an Evaluation System for Public First Aid Education and Training Based on the Kirkpatrick Model

Background: Effective evaluation of public first aid education and training remain limited by the lack of standardized and comprehensive frameworks. This study aimed to develop a theoretical evaluation framework for public first aid education and training based on the Kirkpatrick evaluation model.

Methods: This methodological study was conducted in three stages: a systematic literature review, a qualitative phenomenological study, and expert panel consultation. A literature review was performed using 9 databases to identify candidate indicators. Subsequently, 16 emergency and critical care professionals from a tertiary hospital in Hunan Province were recruited through purposive sampling for semi-structured interviews. Interview data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step phenomenological method to develop the initial framework, which was further refined through consultation with 14 experts.

Results: The final evaluation indicator system comprises 4 primary indicators, 12 secondary indicators, and 45 tertiary indicators, encompassing the reaction, learning, behavior, and outcome dimensions of public first aid training. The expert authority coefficients for the expert panel meeting ranged from 0.85 to 0.95.

Conclusions: The proposed evaluation framework provides a theoretically grounded and structured basis for the future evaluation of public first aid education and training. Further validation is warranted to assess its applicability across different training settings.