RESUMO
According to the official statistics, cardiac arrest and accidents are included respectively as the first and second causes of death in Iran. Giving first aid to victims by trained people present at the scene causes less damage to the injured. This research was performed in order to study the current state of knowledge and attitudes of staffs of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences about first aid and CPR. In this descriptive survey, all non-medical staffs [in headquarter and subordinate units] of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were studied in city of Sari in 2012. A total of 320 persons were selected and studied with stratified sampling using Cochran formula. By using a self-administered standardized questionnaire, data was collected in three parts: demographic information, knowledge and attitudes assessment. In order to evaluate validity and reliability, it was used of the opinion of public education experts of Red Crescent society and also university professors. However, the results of Cronbach's alpha coefficient [questions related to knowledge and attitudes r=0/83 and r=0/88 respectively] showed an acceptable internal consistency. The comparison of average score between the two groups indicated there were significant differences between the trained and untrained groups about knowledge of first aid [P<0/05, t=2/535]. However, significant differences were not observed between attitudes of two groups' average score towards first aid [0/05< P, t=0/618]. According to the results, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences as one of the monitoring system and responsible organization for promoting health should improve the knowledge and awareness of its personnel. Since the staffs' information should keep up to date with appropriate retraining methods, appropriate educational programs should be launched for nonmedical staffs of the university. In this regard, one of the most important measures for officials is to pay more attention to promoting and training of first aid skills of the personnel