Introduction: Children and adolescents are one of the most vulnerable groups in the population, which is why preventive health care is so important for them. It starts early and encourages children to lead a healthy lifestyle through preventive activities. Purpose: The purpose of diploma work is to present the role and responsibilities of school nurses in the treatment of children and adolescents, especially their role in reducing public health problems such as obesity, diabetes, risky sexual behaviour, drug abuse and mental distress among children and adolescents. Methods: We used a descriptive working method with literature review. The literature was searched in English using the search term “school nurs*” AND “prevention”. MEDLINE and CINAHL with full text databases were used. We included 13 articles in the final analysis. Results: A review of the literature showed that school nurses abroad play an important role in managing chronic conditions such as caring for children with type 1 diabetes and acute conditions in children, such as helping with asthma exacerbations. They are also the most common provider of preventive activities at the primary healthcare level. With their expertise, they implement a number of different interventions such as collaborating and providing an annual check-up, screening programs, teaching healthy lifestyles, preventing obesity and drug abuse, identifying mental health disorders, and health education about safe sex. They provide support to students because they trust and rely on them. They are recognized as a good link between the school and health care system, but at the same time they can also communicate with parents or guardians and adapt to different cultural and social situations. Discussion and conclusion: Nurses abroad play an important role in implementation of preventive and curative activities in schools, while children in Slovenia mostly meet nurses only during check-ups in community health centres. From the literature review, we found that school nurses, reduce public health problems of children, such as obesity, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and mental disorders, through their interventions. Following the example of good practices from abroad, it would be useful to explore the benefits of integrating this profile into the school system to ensure the highest possible quality of growth and life for children and adolescents. This could have a positive impact on their health and well-being in later life.
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