Clinical Services and Social Impact
INTRODUCTION
The Portfolio of Clinical Services and Social Impact supports the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences’ (FMHS) strategic plan of facilitating transformative, life-long learning; creating, sharing and translating knowledge that enhances health and health equity and co-creating value with and for the communities we serve.
The FMHS is in partnership with the public health sector (the Western Cape Government: Health, the Northern Cape Department of Health and the National Health Laboratory Services) to support the education of health professionals who facilitate the resources required to provide universal access to health care.
The purpose of these partnerships is broadly described as excellence in health care and in the teaching and training of health professionals as well as creating a supportive environment for furthering the frontiers in health research. The Vice Dean: Clinical Services (CS) and Social Impact (SI) at the FMHS ensures an enabling environment for undergraduate and postgraduate training. The strategy behind this includes training students in underserviced and rural settings and working closely with health services, civil society, basic education department and local communities.
The social impact strategy is underpinned by the FMHS’s research, teaching and learning strategies. Through world-class research and innovation, the FMHS creates, shares and translates knowledge that enhances health and health equity. Equally the development of competent, confident and caring graduates, assists communities to enhance their health status and continue to be productive members of society.
GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL IMPACT
The Social Impact Committee (SIC) of Senate is established by the Social Impact Strategic Plan (SISP) of Stellenbosch University. The Committee is responsible for the governing of and the provision of strategic direction to the implementation of social impact (SI). At the FMHS a social impact committee is established to govern the SI strategy, goals, values and implementation of social impact in the faculty. The committee is chaired by the Vice-dean responsible for social impact and consist of members from the departments nominated by the department or invited by the committee. The committee is also represented by one nominee of the undergraduate student council and the Tygerberg postgraduate student council respectively.