(5) Are we producing socially accountable students?

Developing a new evaluation framework 

         Sivan Spitzer-Shohat , Shmuel Reis, Peter Gilbey , Michael Weingarten, Mary CJ Rudolf,

Faculty of Medicine in the Galil, Bar Ilan University, Israel

 

 

Introduction: In recent years, social accountability is at the forefront of medical schools' efforts, but no established standard or validated assessment tool exists to know if medical schools are producing socially accountable graduates. The current study presents an innovative evaluation tool developed to answer this question

 

Methods: The Bar Ilan Faculty's teaching committee's vision for the ideal graduate was analysed by 2 researchers who independently identified and classified core competencies of socially accountability. An evaluation strategy was developed and a questionnaire compiled from existing validated tools that address these competencies. The questionnaire was piloted among two cohorts of students at the beginning of their clinical clerkships: those who completed pre-clinical studies at Bar Ilan and a control group whose preclinical years were spent abroad

 

Results: The social accountability competences identified related to professionalism, patient centeredness, advocacy, cultural competence, and inter-professional team work. The pilot demonstrated acceptability and feasibility of the questionnaire. The Bar Ilan group scored higher on cultural competency, (t=61.4; p<0.01) and all scored well for patient centeredness, professionalism, and advocacy.

 

Conclusion: The pilot demonstrated feasibility and satisfactory levels in all domains during the pre-clinical years. Evaluating students' attitudes and knowledge regarding social accountability will assist in attaining a better understanding of how and to what extent the Faculty has succeeded training socially accountable graduates. Our intention is to track our graduates in the long term. The development of this process should be of value to others working in the field of medical education elsewhere.