Strengthening School Community Preparedness through FAST Education, Health Literacy, and Stroke Emergency Response Simulation
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Abstract
Stroke outcomes are strongly influenced by how quickly people recognize warning signs and activate emergency care, yet school communities are rarely prepared to respond to a suspected stroke occurring among teachers, staff, families, or visitors. This community-service program strengthened school preparedness through an integrated package of FAST education, stroke-related health literacy, guided emergency simulation, and development of a School Emergency Response System. The program was implemented at SMA Negeri 1 Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia, with teachers, student members of the School Health Unit, supervising teachers, and UKS personnel. Evaluation used an unmatched pre-post design because anonymous respondent codes were not available. The evaluation included 68 pre-activity and 14 post-activity responses, which were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests, Holm correction, and rank-biserial effect sizes. Post-activity scores were higher for stroke knowledge and case recognition (79.0±13.3 vs. 92.3±11.1; adjusted p=.002), health literacy (58.8±19.7 vs. 73.1±13.0; adjusted p=.012), and emergency response readiness (61.5±15.6 vs. 67.9±9.7; adjusted p=.036). The largest practical gain concerned avoiding oral food, fluids, or medication for a person with suspected stroke, while uncertainty remained about whether symptoms could be observed for 30-60 minutes. The program suggests that schools can become meaningful community nodes for stroke recognition when concise messages, reflective discussion, simulation, and institutional response procedures are combined. Continued reinforcement, paired follow-up evaluation, and routine UKS simulation are recommended.
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References
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