Educational initiatives such as Stop the Bleed continue to educate medical laypeople in first aid for massive bleedings. The effect of including realistic blood early in Stop the Bleed-type training remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of including realistic blood early in a Stop the Bleed-type training on medical laypeople's intent to provide future aid and self-perceived ability to provide aid.

In total, 46 medical laypeople participated in this study. Two bleeding control tasks, wound packing and tourniquet application, were performed in a simulated scenario on a manikin with a wound. Participants received brief Stop the Bleed-type training and were divided into two groups: with (Blood) or without (Control) blood present during the tasks. After the experiment, two surveys were administered, one on confidence in their ability to perform each task, and a previously established survey on their intent to aid a bleeding victim in real-life situations.

The post-trial survey showed that the participants in the Blood group had lower confidence than the Control group in their wound packing ability (MBlood = 2.09, SDBlood = 0.85; MControl = 3.04, SDControl = 0.86), t(43) = 3.725, p < .001, but not regarding their tourniquet application ability, t(43) = 0.019, p = 0.985. Further, there was no difference between the groups in their intent to aid in future real accidents (MBlood = 91.00, SDBlood = 6.10: MControl = 90.39, SDControl = 8.30), t(43) = 0.282, p = .782.

This study shows that introducing realistic blood early in Stop the bleed-type training of laypeople results in decreased confidence in their wound packing ability. However, it does not decrease their intent to aid in future emergencies. Future studies should investigate when and how complicating factors such as blood should be introduced in laypeople hemorrhage control training.