Social Mission Metrics Initiative

National Survey

The National Social Mission Self-Assessment was aimed to give health professions school leaders an overview of the state of social mission at their schools. Following the guidance of a National Advisory Committee and field testing at over 60 schools, the National Social Mission Self-Assessment campaign was disseminated in 2019.

All dental, medical, and a sub-set of nursing schools across the United States were invited to take the survey as a form of self-assessment to examine their:

  1. School’s social mission status; 
  2. Current strengths and areas for improvement; and 
  3. Social mission proficiency in comparison to similar schools.

School administrators were invited to take the self-assessment online or with a paper survey.

242 Schools participated. 133 nursing programs, 83 medical schools, 26 dental schools

A total of 242 schools participated in the survey, nearly 40% of all dental schools (26 of 66), over 40% of medical schools (83 of 203), and over 30% of nursing schools (133 of 420).

Map of the United States showing the geo-distribution of schools that participated in SMMI. All states are represented with the exception of Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Alaska and largest number of schools from California, New York  Illinois, Texas, and Florida.

​Participating schools received a summary report detailing their school’s survey results. While individual school results are kept confidential to encourage honesty in self-reporting, aggregated data from the self-assessment provide information for a confidential data repository to develop performance measures and form a collection of best practices in the field of social mission.

A more comprehensive summary of the 2019 national survey can be found on JAMA, in Analysis of Social Mission Commitment at Dental, Medical, and Nursing Schools in the US. An example of the full survey is available in the article’s supplemental materials.

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