How do undergraduate medical students perceive social accountability?

Abstract

Aim.The concept of Social accountability within undergraduate training is embedded within the remit of Medical schools. Little is known of how medical students perceive social accountability, recognise aspects of their training contributing to the development of this concept and cultivate the underpinning values. Methods.Students nearing graduation were recruited to participate in focus groups designed to explore their perceptions of social accountability, which curricular aspects had contributed to their understanding, and to investigate the implications of individual variations in training. Results.Students expressed limited appreciation of the concept of social accountability and acknowledged little explicit teaching around underpinning core concepts such as awareness of local health needs, advocacy and nurturing of altruism. However, participants recognised numerous aspects of the course and learning initiatives as impacting on their attitudes towards this concept implicitly. Conclusion:This study highlights areas of their undergraduate training that students recognise as having the greatest impact on their development into socially accountable professionals. It poses some significant challenges for health care educators in addressing unintended consequences, including an outcomes driven educational approach, in reducing students capacity or willingness to engage in curricular challenges often designed to embed this concept. words3

Building blocks for social accountability: a conceptual framework to guide medical schools

“…As explored by Preston et al [3] the difference in perceptions of social accountability indicates that the term may not be universally understood and appreciated [64–70]. Furthermore, the term has danger of losing meaning if schools do not continue to critically appraise and debate the term and what it means in their own unique context.…”

A global perspective on the challenges and opportunities in learning about rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in undergraduate medical education

“…Furthermore, the clinical importance of rheumatology is only likely to be appreciated by medical students if it is given commensurate weighting in examinations [45]. This is particularly relevant in the current climate of limited awareness of social accountability by medical students [139]. For these reasons, inclusion of RMDs in examinations is of paramount importance and rheumatologists should be advocating this [82].…”

The Socially Accountable Professor in Higher Education

“…Such negative views regarding service can represent a substantial barrier to community-engagement as it can result in faculty avoiding such activities, particularly those in the early stages of their career when the approval or disapproval of peers is critical to their progressions. Since, such a barrier can be viewed as a lack of reciprocity, with the community gaining more than the faculty member from such a relationship, it is notable that reciprocity is viewed as a key feature of successful engagement (Beaulieu et al, 2018) but is somewhat at odds with the literature regarding social accountability which values not recipricocity but altruism (Boelen & Woolard, 2009;McCrea & Murdoch-Eaton, 2014). The answer may be to prioritze community-impact as a key measure of academic success, equal to or even superior to the number of papers published or amount of research monies gained (Barge & Shockley-Zalabak, 2008;O'Meara & Jaegar, 2006).…”