The future of first aid education will be defined by how well the field turns new global guidelines into confident local action by ordinary citizens. 2025 saw the publication of scientific updates on first aid and resuscitation from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), along with aligned resuscitation council guidelines. These updates consolidate an immense body of evidence on first aid, basic and advanced life support, and education and implementation strategies. They offer a powerful scientific foundation, but their impact will depend on educators, instructors, and program designers who can translate the consensus on science into responsive, context-aware learning that reduces suffering and strengthens community resilience (Berg et al., 2025; Djärv, Douma, et al., 2025; Djärv, Rogers, et al., 2025).

For first aid educators, this moment is both a responsibility and an invitation: the science of resuscitation has advanced; now the science of teaching and engaging communities must keep pace (International Federation of Red Cross/ Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), 2020).

The IFRC’s International First Aid, Resuscitation and Education Guidelines emphasized in 2020 that accessible, relevant, and adaptive education is essential if learners are to feel able to intervene in crises, not simply recall isolated skills (IFRC, 2020). As updated guideline chapters on education and implementation appear in 2025-26, they increasingly highlight tailored training, feedback-informed improvement, and systems approaches that integrate courses with broader community, institutional, and policy change. This journal's role is to document and critically examine how these principles are implemented—and where they fall short—in diverse contexts worldwide.

Evidence from Practice: Volume 8, Issue 1 Demonstrates What's Possible

The articles in this issue exemplify the translation of evidence into action across diverse settings and populations. Kimanzi's work on STOP THE BLEED® Kenya demonstrates what responsive, locally adapted education can achieve in a low-resource setting (Kimanzi, 2025). Within 31 weeks, 1,275 individuals across eight Kenyan counties were trained in bleeding control tailored to local conditions: high road traffic injury rates, delayed ambulance response times, and community members in serious accident exposure occupations. Post-training surveys showed 87% confidence, 69% skill retention at 4 weeks, and critically, field reports of first aid delivered before professional help arrived. This is not a cookie-cutter global course; it is a curriculum grounded in Kenyan epidemiology, delivered through modular and microlearning channels, with local trust-building—precisely the cascade approach that modern guidelines endorse (Kimanzi, 2025).

The infant CPR research by Doernte, Phipps, Stout, and Vance (2025) illustrates another key principle: evidence-informed adaptation of technique while preserving clinical core competencies. Their comparative efficacy study of two-finger versus two-thumb compression techniques in infant resuscitation found that two-thumb compressions achieved 92% of compressions meeting the ≥4 cm guideline depth, compared to 69% with the two-finger technique. Critically, they found no loss of ventilation efficacy, and participants reported less fatigue and a stronger preference for the two-thumb method. This research directly informs instructor training and practice guidelines by showing that a standardized (infant CPR) technique has room for evidence-based refinement, and that educator intuition about which method is “easier” can be tested and validated.

Huntley, O'Keefe, and Wytenbroek’s (2025) work on lifeguard confidence in airway management and oxygen administration reveals a crucial gap between training and real-world readiness. Of 1,123 professional lifeguards surveyed, 77% reported confidence in oxygen administration (reflecting frequent use), yet only 31% felt confident with manual suction (reflecting limited real-world practice). Most striking: 92.7% of lifeguards recommended hands-on training every 6 months or annually, and 62% preferred 1–2-hour sessions. Yet 87% had no real-life experience with bag-valve-mask devices. This finding underscores a truth that guidelines cannot legislate: confidence is built through exposure and reinforcement, not through a one-time course. It also reveals learner preferences—online videos and eLearning modules ranked highest as learning resources, indicating how responsive education can effectively support lifeguards between formal training sessions.

The systemic drowning prevention framework by van Duijn, Abächerli, and Hafen (2025) applies complexity theory to first aid education, asking not only how to teach prevention techniques, but how to understand drowning as embedded in systems: individual behaviors, water safety infrastructure, community preparedness, and policy. This work models the shift from “training courses” to "education as systems change," aligning with the Chain of Survival Behaviors framework emphasized in updated guidelines (Berg et al., 2025).

Responsive Education Grounded in Evidence

These articles, along with others we published through 2025, collectively demonstrate what responsive first aid education looks like in practice: rigorous adherence to evidence-based clinical guidelines while intentionally and intelligently adapting delivery, scenarios, and emphasis to the learners and contexts at hand.

Responsive education considers who is in the room, where they live, and what emergencies they actually face. It uses scenarios that look and sound like learners' real lives so that the message "This is for you" is unmistakable. Evidence-informed adaptation of examples, practice environments, and emphasis—without altering the clinical core—is where educational craft meets guideline fidelity.

High Quality Training Requires Support and Iteration

The updated ILCOR education and implementation recommendations underscore that outcomes improve when rescuers have attended accredited, high-quality training tailored to the context and learner population. Yet this tailoring does not happen in documents; it happens through instructors who are supported, trusted, and prepared to teach responsively while maintaining technical accuracy. The studies above reflect that.

Climate Change, Crisis, and Community Resilience

Climate change, conflict, and social fragmentation are already reshaping the emergencies that first aiders encounter, from prolonged heat waves and floods to displacement, infectious disease outbreaks, and mental health crises. First aid curricula built for a stable climate and predictable infrastructure no longer suffice. Yet the studies in this issue show that education can be forward-looking: drowning prevention frameworks that account for changing water patterns and community capacity; bleeding control training that anticipates delayed response times as health systems are stretched; lifeguard preparation for novel aquatic emergencies.

At the same time, humanitarian principles—humanity, impartiality, neutrality, universality—offer a shared ethical foundation that can bridge social and political divides. Kimanzi's work in Kenya demonstrates first aid as mutual aid across communities. The lifeguard research shows young, diverse professionals (59% female; 54% under 21) committed to community safety. First aid education, grounded in these principles, embodies resilience—a practical assertion that all lives matter and that ordinary citizens are equipped to respond effectively.

A Call to Contributors: Document What You Are Learning

The International Journal of First Aid Education exists to advance knowledge and practice for educators, instructors, and program designers committed to real-world helping behaviors. As new first aid and resuscitation guidelines emerge from scientific institutions to shape global standards, we invite submissions that document their implementation in classrooms, communities, workplaces, and aquatic environments.

We urge you to consider submitting your research, program evaluations, and field reports that address three interconnected questions:

1.      How are educators aligning with the latest international first aid and resuscitation science? What does implementation of the 2025 guidelines look like in your setting?

2.      How do you adapt education to local risks, cultures, and climate realities while preserving guideline fidelity? What works in your community? What did you learn when a standard approach didn't land?

3.      How do these efforts mobilize citizens who are not only technically competent but also willing to act? What evidence do you have that your education changes behavior and builds resilience?

Submit case reports from your first aid programs. Share your research on technique optimization, learner confidence, instructor preparation, or the role of digital tools in sustaining competence. Document how you are preparing people for a changing climate and a fractured social landscape. Contribute to the literature on how first aid education becomes a force for human dignity and mutual aid.

Conclusion

The future of first aid education will be written not only in guidelines but also in the stories, data, and insights that educators and practitioners choose to share. The articles in this issue—from Kenyan communities to Canadian aquatic settings, from technique refinement to systems thinking—show educators already doing this work. This journal stands ready to be one of the places where that future is documented, debated, and improved.

References

Berg, K. M., Bray, J. E., Djärv, T., Drennan, I. R., Greif, R., Liley, H. G., Scholefield, B. R., Atkins, D. L., Carlson, J. N., de Caen, A. R., Lavonas, E. J., Lockey, A. S., Montgomery, W. H., Morrison, L. J., Olasveengen, T. M., Rabi, Y., Sandroni, C., Schmölzer, G. M., Singletary, E. M., … Nolan, J. P. (2025). Executive Summary: 2025 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Consensus on Science With Treatment Recommendations. Circulation, 152(16_suppl_1). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001361

Djärv, T., Douma, M. J., Carlson, J. N., Singletary, E. M., Berry, D. C., Bradley, R. N., Cassan, P., Chang, W.-T., Charlton, N. P., Cimpoesu, D., Goolsby, C. A., Lim, S. H., Pek, J. H., Klaassen, B., Kule, A., Laermans, J., Macneil, F., Martinez-Mejias, A., Meyran, D., … Welsford, M. (2025). First Aid: 2025 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Consensus on Science With Treatment Recommendations. Circulation, 152(16_suppl_1). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001358

Djärv, T., Rogers, J., Semeraro, F., Brädde, L., Cassan, P., Cimpoesu, D., van Goor, S., Klaassen, B., Laermans, J., Meyran, D., Singletary, E. M., Mellett-Smith, A., Thilakasiri, K., & Zideman, D. (2025). European Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2025 First Aid. Resuscitation, 215, 110752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2025.110752

Doernte, L., Phipps, R., Stout, K., & Vance, J. (2025). Comparative Efficacy of Two‐Finger Versus Two‐Thumb Encircling Techniques in Infant Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. International Journal of First Aid Education, 1. https://doi.org/10.25894/ijfae.2800

Huntley, R., O’Keefe, C. J., & Wytenbroek, L. (2025). Lifeguard Experience, Confidence, and Learning Preferences Following Airway Management and Oxygen Administration Training. International Journal of First Aid Education. https://doi.org/10.25894/ijfae.2485

International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies. (2020). International First Aid, Resuscitation, and Education Guidelines 2020. International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies. www.globalfirstaidcentre.org/resource/international-first-aid-resuscitation-and-education-guidelines-2020-2/

Kimanzi, W. (2025). STOP THE BLEED® Kenya: A Community-Driven First Response Model for Road Traffic Trauma. International Journal of First Aid Education, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.25894/ijfae.2962

van Duijn, T., Abächerli, R., & Hafen, M. (2025). Systemic Drowning Prevention - A Theoretical Framework for the Development of Evidence-Based Interventions. International Journal of First Aid Education. https://doi.org/10.25894/ijfae.2705