Background: Life is characterized by precarious twists and turns and risky conditions that emerge all the time. First aid is the immediate action taken to save a life and reduce the effects of injury and illness until medical help is obtained. This study aims at assessing the knowledge regarding first aid among undergraduate medical students and comparing the knowledge among different terms. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among 150 undergraduate medical students of Vydehi Medical College, Bangalore. A questionnaire with 15 questions regarding the awareness and skills involved in first aid were used to assess the levels of awareness among undergraduate medical students. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet. Analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. Data was analysed using percentages and Chi-square test. Results: A total of 150 medical students filled the questionnaire, 50 each from 5th (2nd year), 7th (3rd year) and 9th terms (4th year). The overall scores were, 43 out of 150 students had excellent knowledge, 71 out of 150 needed improvement, 35 out of 150 had adequate knowledge and only 1 out of 150 had poor knowledge about First-Aid. The association between terms and level of knowledge was found to be statistically significant. Conclusions: First Aid knowledge among medical students needs improvement. Level of knowledge improved with increasing term but this was not sufficient and more training should be given to all medical students on first aid and basic life support.

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COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. The initial response to the pandemic included the cessation of routine services including elective orthopaedic surgery. There was apprehension among both surgeons and patients about restarting elective surgical services. The high mortality rate in perioperative patients who contract COVID-19 was of particular concern. The aim of this study was to identify the perioperative viral transmission rate in orthopaedic patients at our institution following the restart of elective surgery between August 2020 and November 2020 after the first wave of Covid in the UK.All patients who had their elective Orthopaedic surgeries at our institution from 1st August 2020 to 30th November 2020 were checked whether they were Covid positive or experienced COVID symptoms within 2 weeks after the operation. All patients were advised a 14-day period of comprehensive social distancing, 3 days of self-isolation and had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of surgery and underwent surgery at a COVID free site. The patients were contacted and the hospital database was searched to identify those patients who were Covid positive or had Covid symptoms after the surgery. Baseline patient characteristics were recorded including age, gender, procedure, the subspeciality and admission type. Patients who underwent emergency procedures and trauma operations were excluded.Out of the 499 patients, 315 were contacted over telephone and hospital database was searched for the rest of the patients. We found that none of the patients were positive for COVID or had symptoms of COVID within two weeks of surgery. 5 patients were COVID positive with symptoms few months after the procedure and all of them recovered. There were 144 inpatient admissions and 353 day cases.The development of a COVID-free pathway for elective orthopaedic patients results in very low viral transmission rates. Findings of our study confirms that COVID-free elective pathway is an efficient process, and this could be implemented in future elective Orthopaedic surgeries during COVID times. Elective surgery can be safely resumed using dedicated pathways and procedures -Surgeons, hospital staff and patients should remain vigilant.