Clinical Services and Social Impact
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
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​​​Clinical Services and Social Im​pact

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​​​​SI TEACHING & LEARNING

The FMHS strives to establish teaching and learning spaces that encourages the development of critical thinking within students as well as socially responsive practice during and after the completion of training. The social impact goals for teaching and learning are:

  1. Academic and service partners engage in goal setting, joint-learning, sense-making and joint management of projects, processes and initiatives.
  2. Partners are involved in decision-making on how research informs teaching and learning. Knowledge translation is clear and teaching and learning outcomes are aligned with the health and development needs of service users, partners and/or industry.
  3. Academic and service partners share leadership and responsibility in developing curricula that responds to the priority health and development needs.
  4. Academic partners demonstrate how indigenous knowledge sources inform the development of learning outcomes and the formulation of goals.
  5. Alternative forms of knowledge inform the learning outcomes and formulation of graduate attributes.
  6. Collaborative learning and teaching practices demonstrate mutually beneficial outcomes for all parties involved.

 

HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING THROUGH TEACHING AND LEARNING 

The World Health Organization (WHO) posits that the strategic importance of strengthening health systems across the world is absolute. Though a number of sophisticated interventions and medical technologies exist, the gaps in health outcomes, particularly in developing countries, continues to widen.  

At the FMHS, we ensure that our research is focused on health policy, clinical and population research as well as biomedical research. Our teaching and learning activities are primarily focused on the development of clinically competent and socially accountable health professionals. The FMHS strives to establish teaching and learning spaces that encourages the development of critical thinking within students and encourages socially responsive practice during and after the completion of training.  This forms part of the social impact goals for teaching and learning.

We recognise that supporting universal access to healthcare is crucial for the proper functioning of society and therefore embed a health systems strengthening focus in our curricular offerings. This helps to ensure that our students leave our faculty as advocates for health, especially in the service vulnerable populations in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

The distributed training platform which includes rural and underserved areas provide opportunities for our health professions students to engage with the public health sector, schools and civil society to learn and train while serving communities and learning with them. Examples of these include our rural training initiatives such as Ukwanda.

The FMHS provides support for students whilst in these settings through the SUNLOC​ team.​