'Promotion of safety in primary schools

Abstract

School students constitute a maJor resource m any community. They are the future adults who are expected to lead the country to further progress. School student spend a good proportion of their time at school and clearly there is plenty of scope for accidents to happen. Actually, several researchers proved that school is a location second only to the home in frequency ofinjury events. Injuries in school account for 10-20% of all . children injuries.

Accomplishing a healthful and safe school environment requires a team effort. Teachers, social workers, administrators, school nurses and physicians can play a powerful role in preventing and controlling injuries at school. The problem of school injury is not a new one, while as a result of

the large proportion of injuries occurring at school and the supervisory nature and structure of a school system, schools may be ideal, cost­ effective targets for safety programs. Designing these programs require a better understanding of the frequency and pattern of injuries at school. So, the aims of the study were to study the epidemiological pattern of school injury and to develop and implement and evaluate a school safety program in primary schools. The study was conducted in 60 governmental pnmary schools representing middle and east zone. The schools were divided into two equal groups (studied and control group). Each group consisted of 30 schools. Each school had a school based clinic and one full time school nurse. All nurses affiliated to these schools was included in the study at least

3 0 nurses for the studied group and 30 nurses for control group.