THE ROLE OF UNPROFESSIONAL EMERGENCY AID TO A VICTIM IN AVOIDING UNTIMELY DEATH IN RUSSIA
The study investigated into the role of unprofessional emergency aid in rescuing life and preserving health of a victim and into its effect on avoiding untimely death in Russia. Frequency of emergency aid provided by none-professionals was in focus of this study. Causes of low real frequency of provided unprofessional emergency aid and of its not quite satisfactory quality were both established here. Insufficient normative and legal basis of unprofessional emergency aid in RF, lack of motives and grounds for the occasional providers of such aid, insufficient training and lack of ready at hand means were noted among such causes. Sociological questionnaire revealed that majority of ordinary citizens did not consider providing occasional emergency aid as civil obligation, while most significant reasons for the failure to try and provide emergency aid were lack of knowledge and practical skills for providing emergency aid, apprehension of inflicting possible harm to an affected person, fear of legal consequence in case of conceivable failure, lack of immediate material means ready at hand. The survey of existing normative documentation in Russia identified quite a number of documents concerning unprofessional emergency medical aid, nevertheless, it were none-concrete definitions and lack of comprehensive approach that imply inefficiency in practical life of emergency aid measures, when provided on these guidelines. Normative documents produced not a single term that could strictly signify emergency aid to a victim by people without medical education. These documentation rendered it unclear what the constituents of the emergency aid were and what volume of first aid interference was passable, what was its algorithm. The rights and responsibilities of a medically uneducated person providing the emergency aid were not stated. Actually, these rights do not exist in legal fixation, as well as does not exist any practical pathway for legal protection of such persons in case of unfavorable outcome of their emergency aid actions or complications in the victim occurred at that moment of time, and these realities tend to incline medically uneducated person to refrain from his/her emergency aid attempt on account of possible negative responsibilities implied. There is no universal system of training for routine ways of emergency aid, and this results in low level of knowledge and practical skills in potential emergency aid occasional participants. This study of ours put forward propositions for medical organizational measures aiming at improving training and quality of occasional emergency aid by none-professionals.