Purpose: The assessment of the role of school nurses in the oral health education and counselling of children and adolescents aged 7-19 years.
Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate nurses' practice in oral health education, previous training in caries prevention, collaboration with a dentist and self-assessment of knowledge. Data were analysed with the Chi square test.
Results: The study group consisted of 140 Polish school nurses. Respondents declared the following activities: dietary counselling (99.2%), oral hygiene education (92.8%), NHS-funded supervised fluoride prophylaxis (82.8%), and caries screenings (4.3%). 47.1% participated in training on caries prevention, 25.7% had a collaboration with a dentist. Nurses from schools located in towns less frequently provided oral hygiene education (p < 0.005) and dietary counselling, but more often had a collaboration with a dentist (p < 0.05). The youngest nurses were more confident about their knowledge (p < 0.05). There was an association between participation in training on caries prevention and positive opinion on a school-based fluoride prophylaxis (p < 0.01). Nurses who did not include dental topics in their practice worked mainly with pupils older than 15 years, had shorter experience (p < 0.05), secondary education, worked in urban areas and had no training on dental problems (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: Polish school nurses have potentially crucial roles in improving the oral health status in pupils through oral hygiene education, dietary counselling and fluoride prophylaxis included in their duties.
Keywords: Caries; Dental health education; School nurse; School-based preventive programs.