Empowering to save

Introduction: The 2012-2016 National Health Plan emphasizes the importance of gains in health “through the alignment around common goals, the integration of sustained efforts from all sectors of society, and the implementation of strategies focused on citizenship, on equality and access, on quality and on healthy policies”. Based on the Universidade Católica Portuguesa’s mission of “generating and sharing critical, innovative and socially relevant knowledge to the service of integral development of the person and the common good”, and considering that the human being is conceptualized as a person who materializes in a health project, taking care of herself, others, things and the surrounding world, arises, the training project in basic life support in secondary schools. This project aims to empower the students for a civic intervention, as health promoting agents, preventing disease and building a healthy society. Methods: Qualitative/quantitative study, using content analysis and statistic treatment of questionnaires of students in a sample of 10 schools. Results: Regarding the adressed subject and content, most of the students, consider them very important. They argue that the project motivates and empowers them for a safer intervention for emergency situations. They feel directly involved for being able to save lives, assuming that this responsibility not only belongs to doctors and nurses, but to everyone. Conclusions: The results higlight the importance of strengthening these intervention projects within the educational community, by empowering the interveners, in a perspective of citizenship and health as integrative concepts in society.