Community Service

The School is closely involved with the community through community-based education (CBE), a core-element of all the courses that are presented in the School and the Faculty of Health Sciences. Through community-based education, centred in the CBE-Office, the School in 2002 has supported community health projects in North-West Province and KwaZulu-Natal (45 different groups of student interns) and quality improvement projects in PHC clinics in the same provinces. Service delivery also included the following:

• 180 fourth-year students carried out regular visits to about 100 elderly persons in homes in Pretoria;
• 180 third-year students each spent six days in delivering maternity services in the Moretele health district, North-West Province;
• 270 student interns assisted with ongoing service delivery at:
  • Maternity sections in eight district and regional hospitals in North-West Province, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal and about 18 PHC clinics in North-West Province and KwaZulu-Natal.

30 community research projects were completed for the following clients: the City Council of Tshwane (personal and environmental health services); Moretele health district (North-West Province); Tshepong SANTA settlement; Student Support Services UP.

Students on various student committees help to initiate and manage several community service projects. These projects focus on benefiting the community, for example by donating toys to needy nursery schools, presenting workshops for the staff of pre-primary schools for children with disabilities and raising funds for children's homes. Students also work with disabled children in the community.

Lecturers accompany students to clinics in the Moretele district and at Mamelodi for community-based education. Guided by lecturers and local health care workers, the students are exposed to the various health care activities at these centers where primary health care is provided within the communities they serve.

Community service has also taken on other forms in the School: 15 reports on forensic cases have been prepared for the SAPS by the Department of Anatomy and various excavations done for clients such as the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

The Departments of the School regularly present Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses.