Future teachers’ attitudes and knowledge regarding the management of the potential students’ life-threatening allergic reactions in Slovenian schools
Article Category: Original scientific article
Published Online: Jun 21, 2018
Page range: 124 - 132
Received: Jul 21, 2017
Accepted: Apr 18, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2018-0016
Keywords
© 2018 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
Poorly developed teachers’ competences for managing children’s allergies can pose a significant problem for the wellbeing of children in the preschool and school environment. The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes and theoretical understanding of the management of allergic reactions in children among future teachers.
Methods
A total of 572 future teachers participated in the study, 56% of whom were in the 1st year of undergraduate educational programmes, while 44% were in the 4th year. The participants answered the Teachers’ Health Competences Development – Allergy Questionnaire.
Results
The future teachers showed positive attitudes towards learning more about different child health issues. There was an average understanding of managing allergic reactions in children (59.4%; SD=16.1% success), with no statistically significant difference regarding the duration of education, science background or the students’ self-allergy. There was, however, a statistically significant difference in achievement scores between future teachers in different educational programmes (
Conclusion
The duration of future education, science background and self-allergy did not influence the level of knowledge regarding the management of allergic reactions in children. A basic educational programme in allergy management had a positive effect on future teachers’ knowledge of managing allergic reactions in children. Our study indicates that all future teachers should be included in specific educational programmes in order to develop adequate health competences.