Dear participant,
1. Introduction
You are invited to participate in the Heartsafe public survey. The goal of this research is to gather your opinions on first aid emergency response in Ireland. We are particularly interested in your views on post-event and aftercare support for first responders. A post-event and aftercare-support provides structured psychological, emotional, and informational aftercare for community first responders and bystanders who witness or perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
In Ireland, the National Ambulance Service have launched the Community First Responder CFR app this year. In countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark, community responders (trained volunteers who can perform CPR) have for some time been alerted via an app to provide assistance in the event of a cardiac arrest in their neighbourhood, even before the emergency medical services arrive. This system has a significant impact of increasing a patients’ chances of survival, but also on the responders themselves.
What is the purpose of this survey?
This survey captures feedback on potential support and aftercare options for first responders. We aim to identify your expectations, any concerns and key considerations regarding support and aftercare in the event of performing CPR.
In Ireland, the implementation of a similar support system for members of the public is currently being considered. To better plan this initiative, we would appreciate your input on what support or aftercare you would require if you were called upon as a member of the public to perform CPR.
By learning from practical experiences in Ireland, we wish to design a future first responder framework that best meets the needs of communities in Ireland.
2. Who is Conducting This Survey?
- Conducted as part of the Heartsafe 2.0 NWE project, a pioneering initiative aimed at improving survival rates associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the North-West Europe (NWE) region funded by Interreg NWE.
- Croí, the Heart and Stroke Foundation is the lead Irish partner in the West and North-West of Ireland working together with our Associate Partners, the National Ambulance Service (NAS) and regional Local Authorities. (https://hs2.nweurope.eu/)
- The Heartsafe Belgian academic partner, the University of Leuven, has designed the survey with Irish partners Croí & NAS. The university Ethical Research Committee has granted approval.
3. What is expected of you?
- Your participation is entirely voluntary.
- If you agree to take part, you will be asked to complete a short online questionnaire which will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
- The questionnaire explores your willingness to help, your views on support following an event, and what you consider essential in a high-quality aftercare programme. There are no right or wrong answers – it is precisely your personal perspective that is central to us.
4. Privacy and data processing
- The survey is anonymous and once submitted information cannot be withdrawn.
- There is no tracking as we do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or technical data such as IP addresses or geographic location tags. To ensure absolute anonymity, if you choose to write details in any open text boxes, please do not include: names of people or specific CFR scheme’s, precise locations or specific dates of incidents you have attended, or any specific details of an incident that could identify the case.
6. Risks and Benefits
There are no physical risks involved in participating. Some questions touch on post-incident stress and emergency responses. Many participants find it beneficial to voice their experiences and help improve future systems of care.
For further information or queries on Heartsafe, please contact the Croí team at heartsafe@croi.ie
7. What will happen to the results?
The aggregated, anonymous data will be analysed by our research team and shared with project partners. No individual responder or local scheme will ever be identifiable in any report. The findings will be compiled into a report to improve organisational support structures and may be shared with national CFR networks or published in professional healthcare journals.
The anonymised data collected will be used to advocate for enhanced practical support for volunteer first responders.
Thank you very much for your time and for your valuable contribution to a safer future for heart health.
Informed Consent
By clicking ‘Next’ below, you indicate that:
- You have read and understood the information provided
- You are at least 18 years of age
- You voluntarily agree to participate in this survey.
There are 35 questions in this survey.