Emergency Management of Traumatic Dental Injuries: Knowledge of Dubai School Nurses

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge of school nurses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, about the emergency management of Traumatic Dental Injuries (TDIs) at schools. Material and

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 68 school nurses (SN) prior to inviting them to an educational workshop on the emergency management of TDIs. The educational workshop covered all the topics in the questionnaire and provided basic necessary information to the SN regarding the emergency management of TDIs. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of the sample; the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test normality for the score of knowledge and Mann-Whitney U test to correlate score of knowledge with different demographical variables (p<0.05).

Results: An overall lack of knowledge about the emergency management of TDIs was observed. The overall average for the score of knowledge for all the participants was 10.75 out of a total of 16 correct answers. Female participants had significantly higher scores of knowledge compared to males (p=0.02). None of the other demographic variables were significantly associated with the score of knowledge.

Conclusion: More training programs are essential for school nurses to improve their knowledge and awareness for better future handling of traumatic dental injuries.