Introduction. The deterioration of the health and physical fitness of school children in recent decades has actualized the need to introduce a health-saving system in educational organizations and as one of its components - school medicine. The introduction of school medicine in education dictated the need to solve two problems: the creation of a material and technical base (school medical offices and their equipment) and the training of school medical workers (bachelors of school medicine) or the redistribution of medical workers from the health system to education. However, the quantitative deficit in the country of pediatricians and secondary medical workers dictated only the first option of solving the problem. In this logic, the project “School medicine” was developed, aimed the training of bachelors in this field in medical universities and their subsequent employment in educational organizations. However, the introduction of school medicine did not take into account the ability of the teaching staff to form and preserve the health of students in the process of education and upbringing. This prompted us to consider the possibility of teachers' participation in the implementation of this project as full members of the school medicine system. The purpose of the study: to justify the role and importance of teachers in the implementation of the project “School medicine”.
Materials and Methods. The research methodology is based on modern concepts of health as a holistic system, including physical, mental and moral components that have a mutual influence on each other, and the inextricable connection of this system with the natural and social environment (the principles of integrity, consistency, unity). The analytical and synthetic methods to study the problem paper has been used.
Results. Based on the data of the authors and generalization results, the main directions of teachers' work on creating a health-preserving environment in an educational organization, participating in screening diagnostics and monitoring of physical and mental health of pupils, forming a healthy and safe lifestyle, as well as cooperation with medical personnel in the implementation of medical and hygienic tasks defined in the project are shown. The system of assessment of pupils' health, which can be defined as the first stage of medical examination of schoolchildren, is presented.
Conclusions. The authors come to the conclusion that the training of students of a pedagogical University with the introduction of the “School medicine” program can provide a comprehensive approach to assessing the health of students and the sanitary and hygienic conditions of the educational environment and the educational process using modern innovative technologies, which can be implemented by teachers both independently and in cooperation with medical personnel.