Measuring Social Accountability through ISAT: A Qualitative Study of the Implementation Process at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina

Abstract

Since its creation, the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of the Litoral (FCM-UNL) has worked to establish strong ties with the community as an institution committed to its Social Responsibility. A group of representatives convened by PAHO built an instrument (ISAT) that made it possible to evaluate the SA of an institution and build a path to continue working with concrete actions in that sense that would allow continuous improvement. The FCM-UNL was part of the group of universities that agreed to participate in a pilot experience of 9 institutions that evaluated their SA through the application of that tool (ISAT) in joint work with THE TUFH Network. To evaluate the difficulties and strengths in the ISAT implementation process and its continuous improvement to ensure its generalization and acceptability, a qualitative study was designed through interviews with members of the team that implemented the instrument at the Faculty of Medicine. UNL Science. The results showed that the ISAT was a very useful resource that an institution could implement for its self-assessment. The implementation of ISAT requires an educational community that understands the scope of the SA concept as well as the commitment of the institution that this entails. The promotion of AS and the commitment of institutions in this sense can be favored by having this instrument that facilitates reflection by educational institutions, that has versions in the local language that can facilitate its understanding, and that people who are members of the committee that verifies the process can understand the language presented in the evidentiary documentation as well as that advice is available in its implementation process.