The Stop the Bleed course aims to improve bystander hemorrhage control skills and may be improved with point-of-care aids. We sought to create and examine a variety of cognitive aids to identify an optimal method to augment bystander hemorrhage control skills in an emergency scenario.

Randomized trial of 346 college students. Effects of a visual or visual-audio aid on hemorrhage control skills were assessed through randomization into groups with and without prior training or familiarization with aids compared with controls. Tourniquet placement, wound packing skills, and participant comfortability were assessed during a simulated active shooter scenario.

A total of 325 (94%) participants were included in the final analyses. Participants who had attended training (odds ratio [OR], 12.67; P = 9.3 × 10−11), were provided a visual-audio aid (OR, 1.96; P = 0.04), and were primed on their aid (OR, 2.23; P = 0.01) were superior in tourniquet placement with less errors (P < 0.05). Using an aid did not improve wound packing scores compared with bleeding control training alone (P > 0.05). Aid use improved comfortability and likelihood to intervene emergency hemorrhage scenarios (P < 0.05).

Using cognitive aids can improve bystander hemorrhage control skills with the strongest effects if they were previously trained and used an aid which combined visual and audio feedback that they were previously introduced to during the course training.