S. Batra is assistant professor of emergency medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and assistant professor of health policy and management, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC.
J. Orban is research scientist, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Acad Med. 2020 Dec;95(12):1811-1816. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003324.
The social mission, which is focused on advancing social justice and health equity, has gained recognition as an important aspect of health professions education. However, there is currently no established method to measure a school's commitment to these activities. In this Perspective, the authors describe the development of a new tool to measure the social mission at dental, medical, and nursing schools across the United States, and they reflect on the implications of using this tool to deepen discussions around the social mission and strengthen progress toward health equity.From 2016 to 2019, the authors created and field tested the online social mission metrics survey for health professions schools to identify their level of engagement in social mission activities, track that level over time, and compare their progress with that of other schools. The survey measures a school's social mission values, programs, and activities across 6 domains and 18 activity areas. The authors also developed a scoring system based on stakeholder priorities, which they used to provide customized, confidential feedback to the schools that participated in the field tests.Going forward, the authors recommend that schools complete the survey every 3 to 5 years to track their social mission over time, and they plan to expand the survey process to additional dental, medical, and nursing schools as well as to schools in other health professions. The social mission metrics survey is meant to be a useful tool for improving the level and quality of social mission engagement at health professions schools, with the goal of improving the awareness, skills, and commitment of health professionals to health equity.
社会使命聚焦于推进社会正义和卫生公平，已被视为卫生专业教育的一个重要方面。然而，目前还没有衡量学校对这些活动承诺的既定方法。在本文观点中，作者描述了一种新工具的开发，该工具用于衡量美国牙科、医学和护理学校的社会使命，并反思了使用该工具来深化对社会使命的讨论和加强卫生公平方面进展的意义。
从 2016 年到 2019 年，作者创建并现场测试了卫生专业学校的在线社会使命指标调查，以确定其参与社会使命活动的程度，跟踪其随时间的变化，并将其进展与其他学校进行比较。该调查衡量了学校在 6 个领域和 18 个活动领域的社会使命价值观、项目和活动。作者还根据利益相关者的优先事项制定了一个评分系统，用于向参与现场测试的学校提供定制的、保密的反馈。
展望未来，作者建议学校每 3 到 5 年完成一次调查，以跟踪其社会使命随时间的变化，并计划将调查过程扩展到其他牙科、医学和护理学校以及其他卫生专业的学校。社会使命指标调查旨在成为提高卫生专业学校社会使命参与度和质量的有用工具，目标是提高卫生专业人员对卫生公平的认识、技能和承诺。
