School of Medicine
VISION
To be a benchmark globally competitive School of Medicine epitomizing scholarly excellence through impactful scientific contributions, graduation of distinguishable and adaptable professionals and advancement of disadvantaged and rural communities through innovative technology, outreach and comprehensive health care.
MISSION
A distinguished School of Medicine that:
1. Provides high-quality Teaching & Learning;
2. Promotes interdisciplinary community-based research, education and skills training that recognizes the cross-disciplinary nature of holistic health care provision and community service.
3. Produces a cadre of health professionals with transformative, innovative leadership skills and empathy rooted in community-based research.
4. Creates an environment that acknowledges the shortfalls of our students, and assist to harness and nurture their potential and abilities with new technologies
5. Advances educational approaches that include evidence-based methods for curriculum development with delivery deeply rooted in the community needs/ aspirations and specifically geared toward innovative research activities embedded in primary health care.
PEOPLE
Students will come to us from many different walks of life – from great wealth and from abject poverty. Each will be valued equally and each will be called to regard each other as being of equal value. They will encounter a diversity of staff who themselves all will play a unique role in constructing this community. From the first greeting of the security guard at the gate to the serious management issues over which the VC presides all of us make a contribution to what we are as school and university.
PROCESS
There are a great number of interactions between people within the School. The School is made up of different groups: scientists and researchers, specialist clinician teachers, undergraduate and postgraduate students, administrators and general staff. All of the interactions between these groups is governed by a set of rules. The rules are there to describe our terms of engagement. What to do, when to do it and what happens when we do something in a particular way. They come to life especially when they guide us to achieve the best of ourselves. The School endeavours to ensure that all our processes ultimately allow people to be the best that they can be. I have no doubt that amongst our students are the diamonds which, after some polishing, shine for all to see.
PROMISE
Our promise is to be responsive to needs of the South African community. The community which all of us are a part of and the community to which we all return. As we develop professionals, we are mindful of the call as professionals to ensure our competence for the safety of the people in our care, ensure these patients are able to exercise their right to dignity and autonomy and, perhaps, most importantly to become agents of social justice as advocates for our patients.
I am looking forward to 2019 and the challenges it brings. We must all – staff and students –ensure that we listen with compassion, we walk with humility and we act with justice in our relationships with each other.
Siyanimukela!!!!!
MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
The importance of a team
A team is a group of people who work together to achieve a common goal or objective. There is interdependency among team members as the team members perform tasks that are related to each other for a common purpose. Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player, the world has known said “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
We, in the School of Medicine (SOM) are a team. As a team we have many parts, but we are also a “subpart” of the whole University team.
The parts of our team are not identical, and their differences create an important diversity which affords us the opportunity to learn from each other. It is this diversity that creates a fertile ground for innovation.
It is the different parts of this diversity that propels us forward to our goal.
Characteristics of a team
- Partnerships: Teams create partnerships in the school of Medicine. Students, academics and supports staff are partners. “You don’t partner with people to duplicate your success; you partner with people to accessorize your limitations” TD Jakes. All the team members have limitations, but each member has the ability to enhance the strength of the other team members in their weaknesses. The purpose of the academic staff is to train students to become fit for purpose, world class health professionals, but this cannot happen without the contributions of management and support staff.
- Trust: To achieve our goals as a School, we need to earn trust, one from another – students’, staff (academic & support) alike. It is when we trust each other that we become vulnerable to our shortcomings, and one to another, can accessorize each other’s vulnerabilities.
- Conflict resolution: Indeed, we shall experience conflicts, after all we are humans, but it is in how we resolve these conflicts that we are able to grow as a school. We should not resolve these conflicts as enemies, but as partners assisting each other to grow.
- Communication: Communication is key for the survival and sustenance of any organization. Effective communication resolves conflicts before they arise from any member of the partnership.
As we embark on this partnership journey in 2025, the Deanery wishes all the members of the organization, a journey filled with partnership building, memory creations and pushing each other to achieving the strategic goals of the school and indeed that of the university. To the new members of the team, you are welcome and indeed are looking forward to your contributions to making this team reach greater heights.
Yours sincerely,
Adjunct Professor Risenga Frank Chauke (Acting Dean)
MBChB, MMed (Thoracic-Chir), Assoc FC (Cardio) SA,
MBA (Gibs – UP) Learning Facilitator: Assessment College of South Africa
Contact Us
CONTACT DETAILS
Dean: Prof Chauke RF
Email: dean.medicine@smu.ac.za/risenga.chauke@smu.ac.za
Department Secretary
Raisibe Mphahlele
raisibe.mphahlele@smu.ac.za
School Operations Manager:
Ms. Monica Maseko
monica.maseko@smu.ac.za
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
Box 210
P.O. MEDUNSA
0204
Telephone number: +27 (0)12 521 5853
Telefax: +27(0)12 521 5811
Applications related enquiries to be directed to Academic Administration on the following numbers: Ext. 4979,4204,4319, 4058 and 3357.