INTRODUCTION In addition to the remarkable improvements in reducing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality, it is still one of the leading public health priorities. Republic of Croatia is still at the top of European countries with the highest death rates of AMI. The Split and Dalmatia County (SDC) has a statistically significantly lower mortality than the average for the Republic of Croatia, but is still far above mortality of European Mediterranean countries. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper was to investigate AMI (I21, MKB-10) morbidity and mortality rates in the Split and Dalmatia County (SDC) for the period 2005-2014., determine their differences in SDC areas and to determine the place and role of the nursing bachelor in prevention and treatment of patients with AMI. SOURCES AND METHODS The research was conducted using data from routine health statistics available at the Public Health Institute of Split and Dalmatian County and from the available data from the Croatian Institute of Public Health and the European Office of the World Health Organization. AMI incidence and mortality rates are shown in total, by sex and age for SDC, by SDC areas: islands, coast and inland, and fifteen epidemiological areas of the Public Health Institute in SDC. In this retrospective study a comparative epidemiological method was used. Statistical analysis was performed using the software Statististica 6.0 (StatSoft, Tulsa, USA). RESULTS Since there is no official register for coronary heart disease, AMI incidence is estimated by the number of hospitalization by AMI. The average annual age standardized hospitalization rate (ASHR) per 100,000 inhabitants of SDC was 180.00 (95% CI 168.23-191.76) for male gender and 79.88 (95% CI 75.48-84, 28) for female gender. ASHR for coastal population 134,80 (95% CI 126,23-143,35) was statistically significantly higher than ASHR for island population 109,18 (93,05-125,30) and ASHR for inland population 106,11 (95% CI 94.14 to 118.08). The average annual age standardized mortality rate (ASMR) for 100,000 habitants of SDC for both sexes of all ages was 71.54 (95% CI 64.02-79.06). Coastal population of both sexes of all ages had ASMR 63.45 (95% CI 55.57-71.32), residents of inland 92.41 (95% CI 82.77-102.04) and inhabitants of islands 81.81 (95 % CI 71.45-92.17) which show statistically significant differences in ASMR. Analysis on epidemiological areas / establishments has confirmed the results in the three main areas of SDC, except for residents of Imotski, who unexpectedly have statistically significantly lower ASMR 71.77 / 100.000 (95% cc 56.95-86.59) compared to the other equally remote areas such as the Substation of Makarska 111.96 / 100.000 (95% CI 89.47-134.45) (P <0.0034). CONCLUSION In addition to the noticeable positive results in the trend of the mortality rate decrease in the SDC population thanks to the measures of secondary and tertiary prevention and interventions, further improvements, i.e. reduction of mortality rates can not be expected without interventions at primary and secondary levels. At the primary level of health care, much more should be done on primary prevention by educating citizens on the reduction of the risk factors for the emergence of AMI, where the outpatient bachelors of nursing are even more important than doctors. At the same time, secondary prevention measures should be brought closer to the remote areas by specialized internistic cardiologists through the polyclinics to make their availability equitable with coastal residents.