Search

Background and objective: One of the most important aspects of health is social health. Addressing social health and social accountability is possible by education of social determinants of health (SDH) to medical students. The aim of current study is to integrate the SDH variables to patient's history-taking in medical education during clerkship stage as an action research and scholarship in education. Pediatric patients were selected as the target population for this study. Methods: The present study is an action-research including three phases of the program's design, implementation, and evaluation. The present paper reports the results of phase I including the following steps; rapid scoping review and expert panel for development of history-taking form. The goal of this phase was to prepare an SDH checklist for history-taking in the Pediatrics Ward of Firoozabadi Teaching Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The checklist of history-taking was evaluated in terms of measurability, feasibility, priority, and clarity using a 5-choice Likert scale. Results: According to the results of the scoping review and consensus-based methods, the preliminary version of the program was prepared including the SDH history-taking checklist. A total of 21 items were selected after two expert panel rounds. The overall absolute agreement was 0.704 (95% CI: 0.587 – 0.793) which was significantly higher than 0.5 (P < 0.001). The range of scores was 3.5 – 4.83 (out of five). Conclusion: We developed a SDH history-taking form including nine domains and 21 items. This form should be piloted and evaluated by an expert panel in the next phases. The present phase of the project proposed a consensus-based program for the imputation of SDH education in the education program of medical students. The reason for the importance of choosing children is that social factors in the group of children can have a greater impact considering the long life ahead and being in the growing age. After the implementation and evaluation phases, this program may be imputed in the medical education curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social accountability (SA) measures institutional responses to societal needs. For medical education to be socially accountable, institutions must be equitably accessible and commit to training physicians who can work with communities to address health disparities. This scoping review aimed to explore the integration of social accountability into undergraduate medical education and examine the various ways it is implemented. Methods: The authors searched PubMed, OVID Medline, CINAHL, ERIC and Scopus electronic databases for articles published between January 1995 and June 2023 to explore how SA is integrated into undergraduate medical education. The enhanced version of Arksey's and O'Malley's six-stage protocol was used. Analysis was done using the thematic analysis approach. Results: Eight hundred twenty-six articles were retrieved in the preliminary search. After the screening, 17 articles were included for final review. From the findings, three thematic areas were derived, which included strategies applied in incorporating SA into undergraduate medical education, factors influencing the adoption of SA into undergraduate medical education, and programmes used to translate SA into undergraduate medical education. Conclusion: This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of the strategies, programs, and influencing factors related to the integration of social accountability into undergraduate medical education. The implementation of SA in undergraduate medical education is still very slow across the globe, there is an urgent need for a continued push towards making medical schools socially accountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the sociocultural role of South Korean public broadcasting is affected by neoliberal cultural policies that situate the Korean Wave at the forefront. Drawing on Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study examines 20 New Year's addresses from two public broadcasters and two associated government institutions, identifying the discursive construction of public broadcasters' roles during the tenures of five governments. In particular, the study illuminates how the neoliberal discursive construction of the media has increasingly reduced public broadcasters to mere economic entities, envisioning the media solely as a source of profit in a globalized media landscape. Providing empirical support, this research suggests that the social imaginary of the Korean Wave and its accompanying media policies have dwarfed the social roles of public broadcasters by linking culture to the nation's supremacy and economic prosperity, thereby reinforcing neoliberal logic and beliefs against public values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social accountability aims to promote a collective ethic that upholds the fundamental values of equity, efficiency, solidarity, and social justice in healthcare and is now considered as a critical mission of academic health centers. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a pedagogical approach that uses digital technology to provide experiential international learning, specifically for increasingly diverse and multicultural healthcare work environments. The SOLID'AIRS program is an innovative French-language COIL that aims to set up international exchanges and workshops on social accountability between health sciences students. The aim of our study was to assess the impact of participation in the SOLID'AIRS program on medical and pharmacy students. Method: Five universities in four different countries were involved in SOLID'AIRS. We conducted a qualitative study by performing individual, semi-directed interviews with students who participated in the program from 2021 to 2022. A thematic analysis was conducted in five chronological phases: (1) reading, (2) descriptive coding, (3) conceptual coding, (4) identification of themes and (5) production of a coherent thematic structure. Results: After including sixteen student participants, 13 medical and 3 pharmacy students, we identified four main themes related to the impact of participation: (1) previous experiences in social accountability and international learning, (2) perception of the program, (3) perceived impacts of the program, and (4) difficulties encountered and avenues to improve the program. Overall, the program was well received by all participants who reported the advantages and limitations of the online learning format. The primary advantage of this format was its feasibility. The participants noted both professional and personal benefits of the program for their current and future practice, including greater reflexivity towards health sciences practice. Based on the challenges faced during the program, particularly in coordinating group work and communication, participants suggested increased supervision of group projects by collaborators, and organizing at least one in-person meeting for future editions. The participants reported encountering difficulties during the COIL and suggested ways of improvement. Conclusion: Participating in a COIL on social accountability appears to be an effective way to adopt a reflective approach to medical practice and should be implemented and evaluated in other educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Social accountability is an emerging theme in health care education. In previous literature, the perspectives of patients regarding the competencies that they think are required for physicians to demonstrate in this domain are scarce. This study aims to get insight into the competencies in the domain of social accountability that, according to patients, should be demonstrated by physicians. Methods: Online semi-structured interviews with 18 patients in the Netherlands were conducted as part of an exploratory qualitative study. Snowballing and convenience sampling techniques were used to recruit participants. The grounded theory method was used to qualitatively analyze the interviews. Results and conclusion: Patients identified five competencies of a physician in the domain of social accountability: (1) Taking patient's characteristics into account and tailoring care to the individual patient, (2) Taking the broader community into account, (3) Balancing between care for the individual patient versus concern for society, (4) Providing guidance to patients in the navigation within the health system, and (5) Taking climate impact into account. Patients stated that the importance of these competencies are dependent on the specialism. Practice implications: The formulated competencies can be used to better align medical education focussing on social accountability to the expectations of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many medical schools utilize the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) to help select a diverse student body, we know little about MMI assessors' roles. Do MMI assessors carry unique insights on widening access (WA) to medical school? Herein we discuss the hidden expertise and insights that assessors contribute to the conversation around WA. Ten MMI assessors (1-10 years' experience) participated in semi-structured interviews exploring factors influencing equitable medical school recruitment. Given their thoughtfulness during initial interviews, we invited them for follow-up interviews to gain further insight into their perceived role in WA. Fourteen interviews were conducted and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Assessors expressed concerns with diversity in medicine; dissatisfaction with the status quo fueled their contributions to the selection process. Assessors advocated for greater diversity among the assessor pool, citing benefits for all students, not only those from underrepresented groups. They noted that good intentions were not enough and that medical schools can do more to include underrepresented groups' perspectives in the admissions process. Our analysis reveals that MMI assessors are committed to WA and make thoughtful contributions to the selection process. A medical school selection process, inclusive of assessors' expertise is an important step in WA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background and objective One of the most important aspects of health is social health. Addressing social health and social accountability is possible by education of social determinants of health (SDH) to medical students. The aim of current study is to integrate the SDH variables to patient’s history-taking in medical education during clerkship stage as an action research and scholarship in education. Pediatric patients were selected as the target population for this study. Methods The present study is an action-research including three phases of the program's design, implementation, and evaluation. The present paper reports the results of phase I including the following steps; rapid scoping review and expert panel for development of history-taking form. The goal of this phase was to prepare an SDH checklist for history-taking in the Pediatrics Ward of Firoozabadi Teaching Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The checklist of history-taking was evaluated in terms of measurability, feasibility, priority, and clarity using a 5-choice Likert scale. Results According to the results of the scoping review and consensus-based methods, the preliminary version of the program was prepared including the SDH history-taking checklist. A total of 21 items were selected after two expert panel rounds. The overall absolute agreement was 0.704 (95% CI: 0.587 – 0.793) which was significantly higher than 0.5 (P

Abstract Background Social accountability (SA) measures institutional responses to societal needs. For medical education to be socially accountable, institutions must be equitably accessible and commit to training physicians who can work with communities to address health disparities. This scoping review aimed to explore the integration of social accountability into undergraduate medical education and examine the various ways it is implemented. Methods The authors searched PubMed, OVID Medline, CINAHL, ERIC and Scopus electronic databases for articles published between January 1995 and June 2023 to explore how SA is integrated into undergraduate medical education. The enhanced version of Arksey's and O'Malley's six-stage protocol was used. Analysis was done using the thematic analysis approach. Results Eight hundred twenty-six articles were retrieved in the preliminary search. After the screening, 17 articles were included for final review. From the findings, three thematic areas were derived, which included strategies applied in incorporating SA into undergraduate medical education, factors influencing the adoption of SA into undergraduate medical education, and programmes used to translate SA into undergraduate medical education. Conclusion This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of the strategies, programs, and influencing factors related to the integration of social accountability into undergraduate medical education. The implementation of SA in undergraduate medical education is still very slow across the globe, there is an urgent need for a continued push towards making medical schools socially accountable.

Abstract Background Social accountability aims to promote a collective ethic that upholds the fundamental values of equity, efficiency, solidarity, and social justice in healthcare and is now considered as a critical mission of academic health centers. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a pedagogical approach that uses digital technology to provide experiential international learning, specifically for increasingly diverse and multicultural healthcare work environments. The SOLID’AIRS program is an innovative French-language COIL that aims to set up international exchanges and workshops on social accountability between health sciences students. The aim of our study was to assess the impact of participation in the SOLID’AIRS program on medical and pharmacy students. Method Five universities in four different countries were involved in SOLID’AIRS. We conducted a qualitative study by performing individual, semi-directed interviews with students who participated in the program from 2021 to 2022. A thematic analysis was conducted in five chronological phases: (1) reading, (2) descriptive coding, (3) conceptual coding, (4) identification of themes and (5) production of a coherent thematic structure. Results After including sixteen student participants, 13 medical and 3 pharmacy students, we identified four main themes related to the impact of participation: (1) previous experiences in social accountability and international learning, (2) perception of the program, (3) perceived impacts of the program, and (4) difficulties encountered and avenues to improve the program. Overall, the program was well received by all participants who reported the advantages and limitations of the online learning format. The primary advantage of this format was its feasibility. The participants noted both professional and personal benefits of the program for their current and future practice, including greater reflexivity towards health sciences practice. Based on the challenges faced during the program, particularly in coordinating group work and communication, participants suggested increased supervision of group projects by collaborators, and organizing at least one in-person meeting for future editions. The participants reported encountering difficulties during the COIL and suggested ways of improvement. Conclusion Participating in a COIL on social accountability appears to be an effective way to adopt a reflective approach to medical practice and should be implemented and evaluated in other educational contexts.

Abstract Background At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Tehran University of Medical Sciences created several joint virtual groups to connect with people and answer their questions. One of these groups was called "Nurse's Voice,” in which nursing professors answered people's questions. The purpose of the current study was to analyze the content of questions in this WhatsApp group during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method This retrospective media content analysis qualitatively analyzed the text of questions and answers extracted from the above-named WhatsApp group. Results Out of 629 questions asked, 364 questions (58.0%) were related to COVID-19 and 265 questions (42.0%) were not. Those related to COVID-19 concerned COVID-19 symptoms and diagnosis, prevention and care, fear and worry, and interpretation of laboratory tests. The questions related to prevention and care fell into four subcategories: basic health principles, prevention of COVID-19 infection, care during COVID-19 infection, and care during COVID-19 recovery. Conclusions Nursing and midwifery schools can take advantage of the scientific capacity of professors and students for virtual communication and social accountability by integrating telehealth into their curricula. Cyberspace provides an opportunity for people to ask questions anonymously. With the results of the current study, the educational needs of the people during possible future epidemics can be predicted and answered faster. Furthermore, the large number of questions unrelated to COVID-19 indicates the need for counseling and training of the general public by nurses in all situations.

Abstract Background We present the first results of the Accreditation System of Medical Schools (Sistema de Acreditação de Escolas Médicas – SAEME) in Brazil. Methods We evaluated the results of the accreditation of medical schools from 2015 to 2023. The self-evaluation form of the SAEME is specific for medical education programs and has eighty domains, which results in final decisions that are sufficient or insufficient for each domain. We evaluated the results of the first seventy-six medical schools evaluated by the SAEME. Results Fifty-five medical schools (72.4%) were accredited, and 21 (27.6%) were not. Seventy-two (94.7%) medical schools were considered sufficient in social accountability, 93.4% in integration with the family health program, 75.0% in faculty development programs and 78.9% in environmental sustainability. There was an emphasis on SAEME in student well-being, with seventeen domains in this area, and 71.7% of these domains were sufficient. The areas with the lowest levels of sufficiency were interprofessional education, mentoring programs, student assessment and weekly distribution of educational activities. Conclusion Medical schools in Brazil are strongly committed to social accountability, integration with the national health system, environmental sustainability and student well-being programs. SAEME is moving from episodic evaluations of medical schools to continuous quality improvement policies.

Abstract Background Social accountability is increasingly integral to medical education, aligning health systems with community needs. Universitas Pattimura’s Faculty of Medicine (FMUP) enhances this through a curriculum that prepares graduates for rural and remote (RR) medical practice, exceeding national standards. The impact of this curriculum on graduate readiness in actual work settings remains unassessed. Objective This study was conducted to capture the perspectives of FMUP medical graduates in a rural-centric curriculum, focusing on the teaching and learning opportunities afforded to them during their medical education. These insights are crucial for evaluating the accountability of regional medical schools in delivering quality service, particularly in underserved areas. Methods Semistructured interviews were conducted with nine FMUP graduates employed in the RR areas of Maluku Province. A qualitative analysis was employed to examine graduates’ views on the curriculum concerning medical school accountability. Results The FMUP curriculum, informed by social accountability principles, partially prepares graduates to work under Maluku’s RR conditions. However, it was reported by participants that their skills and preparedness often fall short in the face of substandard working environments. Conclusions The FMUP curriculum supports the government’s aim to develop an RR medical workforce. However, the curriculum’s social accountability and rural emphasis fall short of addressing community health needs amid inadequate practice conditions. Political investment in standardizing medical facilities and equipment is essential for enhancing graduates’ effectiveness and health outcomes in RR communities.

Background: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Tehran University of Medical Sciences created several joint virtual groups to connect with people and answer their questions. One of these groups was called "Nurse's Voice," in which nursing professors answered people's questions. The purpose of the current study was to analyze the content of questions in this WhatsApp group during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This retrospective media content analysis qualitatively analyzed the text of questions and answers extracted from the above-named WhatsApp group. Results: Out of 629 questions asked, 364 questions (58.0%) were related to COVID-19 and 265 questions (42.0%) were not. Those related to COVID-19 concerned COVID-19 symptoms and diagnosis, prevention and care, fear and worry, and interpretation of laboratory tests. The questions related to prevention and care fell into four subcategories: basic health principles, prevention of COVID-19 infection, care during COVID-19 infection, and care during COVID-19 recovery. Conclusions: Nursing and midwifery schools can take advantage of the scientific capacity of professors and students for virtual communication and social accountability by integrating telehealth into their curricula. Cyberspace provides an opportunity for people to ask questions anonymously. With the results of the current study, the educational needs of the people during possible future epidemics can be predicted and answered faster. Furthermore, the large number of questions unrelated to COVID-19 indicates the need for counseling and training of the general public by nurses in all situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social accountability has been acknowledged as an important facet of medical education delivery as it envisages that healthcare professionals have the responsibility to be accountable for health‑related community needs. The purpose of the current review is to identify the factors that determine the success of social accountability in medical education and explore different ways in which technology can aid in the implementation of social accountability initiatives in medical institutions. The successful implementation of socially accountable medical education depends on a broad gamut of factors, which can be associated with different stakeholders, including the role of technology in facilitating the implementation of the same. Owing to the fact that technology has reached every aspect of human life, it is our responsibility to explore its scope in promoting the attainment of competencies pertaining to social accountability among medical students. In conclusion, social accountability in medical education has multiple benefits and has emerged as the need of the hour. The integration of technology into socially accountable medical education plays a defining role in improving the effectiveness of educational activities, facilitating better community and student engagement, and eventually contributing to the production of socially responsible healthcare professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of delivery of medical education, social accountability envisages the responsibility of medical and healthcare institutions to meet the health‑related needs of the communities in the catchment areas. The medical colleges that have integrated social accountability in their curriculum work with a goal to produce not only knowledgeable and skilled medical graduates but also those who are committed to the well‑being of the entire community. The process of implementation of social accountability in medical education can have its own share of challenges. There is an immense need to plan and implement potential solutions for each of the identified challenges to ensure maximum benefit to the students, teachers, and community at large. In conclusion, social accountability in medical education has been associated with multiple benefits to all the involved stakeholders. This calls for the need to identify the challenges that can play their part in the successful implementation in medical schools and employment of appropriate measures to overcome them and move thereby bringing about a decline in health disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: There is growing evidence supporting a shift towards 'grow your own' approaches to recruiting, training and retaining health professionals from and for rural communities. To achieve this, there is a need for sound methodologies by which universities can describe their area of geographic focus in a precise way that can be utilised to recruit students from their region and evaluate workforce outcomes for partner communities. In Australia, Deakin University operates a Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) program funded Rural Clinical School and University Department of Rural Health, with the purpose of producing a graduate health workforce through the provision of rural clinical placements in western and south-western Victoria. The desire to establish a dedicated Rural Training Stream within Deakin's Doctor of Medicine course acted as a catalyst for us to describe our 'rural footprint' in a way that could be used to prioritise local student recruitment as well as evaluate graduate workforce outcomes specifically for this region. Issue: In Australia, selection of rural students has relied on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Areas (ASGS-RA) or Modified Monash Model (MMM) to assign rural background status to medical course applicants, based on a standard definition provided by the RHMT program. Applicants meeting rural background criteria may be preferentially admitted to any medical school according to admission quotas or dedicated rural streams across the country. Until recently, evaluations of graduate workforce outcomes have also used these rurality classifications, but often without reference to particular geographic areas. Growing international evidence supports the importance of place-based connection and training, with medical graduates more likely to work in a region that they are from or in which they have trained. For universities to align rural student recruitment more strategically with training in specific geographic areas, there is a need to develop precise geographical definitions of areas of rural focus that can be applied during admissions processes. Lessons learned: As we strived to describe our rural activity area precisely, we modelled the application of several geographical and other frameworks, including the MMM, ASGS-RA, Primary Healthcare Networks (PHN), Local Government Areas (LGAs), postcodes and Statistical Areas. It became evident that there was no single geographical or rural framework that (1) accurately described our area of activity, (2) accurately described our desired workforce focus, (3) was practical to apply during the admissions process. We ultimately settled on a bespoke approach using a combination of the PHN and MMM to achieve the specificity required. This report provides an example of how a rural activity footprint can be accurately described and successfully employed to prioritise students from a geographical area for course admission. Lessons learned about the strengths and limitations of available geographical measures are shared. Applications of a precise footprint definition are described including student recruitment, evaluation of workforce outcomes for a geographic region, benefits to stakeholder relationships and an opportunity for more nuanced RHMT reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article is the third in a series exploring drivers of social accountability (SA) in medical schools across Canada. Findings from the two previous articles have highlighted a central relationship between community, students, and faculty at medical schools, and led to the emergence of a new social accountability model– the Community Triad Model (CTM). The CTM proposes an interconnectedness between community, students, faculty, and the broader institution, and the pathways through which community-based learning directly and indirectly influences decision-making in medical institutions. This article explores the relationships between the three arms of the CTM by examining the literature on community engagement and SA, as well as by revisiting popular models and foundational SA reports to garner insights into authentic community engagement in health professions education. While there is an abundance of literature demonstrating the impact of community placements on students, there are limited studies describing the influence of communities on faculty and the broader institution either directly, or indirectly via students. The authors recommend that institutions be more intentional in engaging students and faculty, and learn from their experiences with community to shape curriculum, practices, policies, and culture of the broader institution. This study offers an operational model of SA that is easy to adopt and implement. It intends to demonstrate how the components of the triad (students, faculty/leadership, community) function together in the community engagement and social accountability of medical schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social accountability is increasingly integral to medical education, aligning health systems with community needs. Universitas Pattimura's Faculty of Medicine (FMUP) enhances this through a curriculum that prepares graduates for rural and remote (RR) medical practice, exceeding national standards. The impact of this curriculum on graduate readiness in actual work settings remains unassessed. Objective: This study was conducted to capture the perspectives of FMUP medical graduates in a rural-centric curriculum, focusing on the teaching and learning opportunities afforded to them during their medical education. These insights are crucial for evaluating the accountability of regional medical schools in delivering quality service, particularly in underserved areas. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with nine FMUP graduates employed in the RR areas of Maluku Province. A qualitative analysis was employed to examine graduates' views on the curriculum concerning medical school accountability. Results: The FMUP curriculum, informed by social accountability principles, partially prepares graduates to work under Maluku's RR conditions. However, it was reported by participants that their skills and preparedness often fall short in the face of substandard working environments. Conclusions: The FMUP curriculum supports the government's aim to develop an RR medical workforce. However, the curriculum's social accountability and rural emphasis fall short of addressing community health needs amid inadequate practice conditions. Political investment in standardizing medical facilities and equipment is essential for enhancing graduates' effectiveness and health outcomes in RR communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social accountability has been acknowledged as an important facet of medical education delivery as it envisages that healthcare professionals have the responsibility to be accountable for health-related community needs. The purpose of the current review is to identify the factors that determine the success of social accountability in medical education and explore different ways in which technology can aid in the implementation of social accountability initiatives in medical institutions. The successful implementation of socially accountable medical education depends on a broad gamut of factors, which can be associated with different stakeholders, including the role of technology in facilitating the implementation of the same. Owing to the fact that technology has reached every aspect of human life, it is our responsibility to explore its scope in promoting the attainment of competencies pertaining to social accountability among medical students. In conclusion, social accountability in medical education has multiple benefits and has emerged as the need of the hour. The integration of technology into socially accountable medical education plays a defining role in improving the effectiveness of educational activities, facilitating better community and student engagement, and eventually contributing to the production of socially responsible healthcare professionals.

In the field of delivery of medical education, social accountability envisages the responsibility of medical and healthcare institutions to meet the health-related needs of the communities in the catchment areas. The medical colleges that have integrated social accountability in their curriculum work with a goal to produce not only knowledgeable and skilled medical graduates but also those who are committed to the well-being of the entire community. The process of implementation of social accountability in medical education can have its own share of challenges. There is an immense need to plan and implement potential solutions for each of the identified challenges to ensure maximum benefit to the students, teachers, and community at large. In conclusion, social accountability in medical education has been associated with multiple benefits to all the involved stakeholders. This calls for the need to identify the challenges that can play their part in the successful implementation in medical schools and employment of appropriate measures to overcome them and move thereby bringing about a decline in health disparity.

Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is crucial for a healthy start in life. Social accountability has a potential for enhancing WASH services in childcare centres. However, there are inadequate studies to understand how informal social accountability mechanisms contributes to WASH service provision. To address this gap, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in Korogocho and Viwandani informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, to explore the relationship between different levels of WASH services (ranging from basic to limited or nonexistent) and indicators of informal social accountability, including rewards, sanctions, voice, and responsiveness. We employed multinomial regression analysis, utilizing a robust error variance estimator to account for potential biases. Our findings revealed disparities in WASH service provision between the two studied areas, with childcare centres in Korogocho exhibiting higher access to basic WASH services compared to those in Viwandani. Our analysis also highlighted a significant association between informal social accountability mechanisms and the provision of WASH services. Notably, the sanction mechanism exhibited a correlation with all WASH services, suggesting its pivotal role in shaping service delivery outcomes. In light of these findings, it is imperative to prioritize efforts aimed at reinforcing social accountability mechanisms in WASH service delivery frameworks. HIGHLIGHTS Safe environment with access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is every child's right.; Informal social accountability mechanism (iSAM) is key in strengthening WASH service delivery in the context of a weak formal service delivery structure.; Improved access to WASH services can be attributed to WASH interventions that emerged during the Covid-19 outbreak.; It is important to continue rebuilding and strengthening social accountability in WASH service delivery to compliment weak formal service delivery systems in childcare centres.;

Abstract Background Medical schools are called to be socially accountable by medical education and healthcare system stakeholders. Social accountability is a feature of excellent medical education. Medical students are essential to the development of socially accountable medical schools. Therefore, understanding the perceptions and experiences of medical students regarding social accountability is critical for efforts to improve social accountability practices and outcomes. Methods This cross-sectional online questionnaire-based survey used Google Forms and involved medical students in their fourth and fifth years of study at the Makerere University School of Medicine. The survey was conducted between September 2022 and October 2023. We used a study questionnaire and a validated toolkit designed by students as part of The Training for Health Equity Collaborative to gauge a school’s progress towards social accountability in medical schools to collect data on demographics, perceptions and experiences and evaluate social accountability. Results Out of 555 eligible medical students, 426 responded to the online questionnaire. The response rate was 77%. The mean age of the students was 25.24 ± 4.4 years. Almost three fourths of the students were male (71.3%), and slightly less than two thirds were in their fourth year of study (65%). Almost half of the students (48.1%%) evaluated the school as doing well with regard to social accountability. The evaluation items referring to community-based research and positive impact on the community had the highest mean scores. Only 6 (3.6%) students who reported hearing of social accountability had a clear understanding of social accountability. Students receiving career guidance in secondary school was associated with evaluating social accountability in the medical school as strong (p-0.003). Conclusions Medical students evaluated the medical school favorably forsocial accountability despite lacking a clear understanding of social accountability. Receiving career guidance in secondary school was significantly associated with a positive evaluation of social accountability.

Introduction and purpose: Indicators of social accountability in medical education institutions are necessary for the improvement of community health needs. In this regard, the present research aimed to investigate the social accountability at Ilam University of Medical Sciences in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The present survey research was carried out in 2022 on students and professors of medicine and dentistry (n=788). The data were collected by standard questionnaire of Social Accountability of Medical Education. This questionnaire included 0 components and 85 items. Results: The results showed that the mean scores of the components of medical school standards range (24.9) (P=0.0002), amount of quality improvement in education and research (34.4) (P=0.0003), amount of mandatory mechanism for accreditation (23.2) (P=0.003), and amount of global principles with the characteristics of the context (33.8) (P=0.002) were in an unfavorable situation during the COVID-19 pandemic from the point of view of both professors and students. These values had a statistically significant difference (P

Purpose This study assessed the alignment between Korean medical schools’ mission statements (MSs) and Korean Doctor’s Role (KDR) domains, considering school characteristics. Methods We analyzed the South Korean medical school’s MS characteristics using a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative analysis preprocessed MS text data to identify concept words, while qualitative content analysis categorized information into predefined KDR domains and extracted themes from other parts. Results At the KDR domain level, “social accountability” was the most frequent, followed by “education and research” and “patient care,” while “professionalism” had the least frequency. At the competency level, the most frequent domains were “involvement in public and global health initiatives,” while “self-regulation based on professional leadership” and “professionalism and self-management” were not present. Conclusion The study found that the majority of MSs had a homogeneous pattern and included traditional themes. Medical schools should evaluate and incorporate missing elements in their MSs to reflect the institution’s own purpose and current societal needs.

Abstract Background Medical schools are increasingly adopting socially accountable mission and curricula, the realisation of which are dependent on engaging individuals to embody the mission’s principles in their everyday activities as doctors. However, little is known about how graduates perceive the efforts taken by their medical school to sensitise them to social accountability values, and how they translate this into their working lives. Our aim was to explore and understand graduate perceptions of how their medical school influenced them to embody a social accountability mission in their working lives. Methods This was a qualitative interview study carried out with graduates/alumni [n = 51] of Christian Medical College, Vellore [CMCV], India, a school with a long-established and explicit social-accountability mission. Data coding and analysis were initially inductive and thematic using Braun and Clarke’s six step framework. MacIntyre’s virtue ethics theory framed secondary analysis, allowing us to consider the relationships between individual and contextual factors. Results Our participants perceived that CMCV invested heavily in selecting personal qualities aligned with the CMCV mission. They saw that these qualities were reinforced through various practices: [e.g., placements in resource limited and/or remote and rural settings]; community engagement and expectations [e.g., student self-governance]; role modelling [staff and more senior students]. Much emphasis was placed on sustaining these traditions and practices over time, creating a strong sense of identity and belonging among participants, traditions which were fostered further by the alumni network and continued engagement with CMCV post-graduation. Conclusions Ensuring social accountable medical education depends on alignment and interactions over time between context and structures, systems and human agents. Further studies are needed to extend understanding of how students from diverse contexts experience socially accountable medical education and translate their educational experience into their thinking and practice after graduation.

Background Assessment of residents’ ability to address unmet health-related social needs to promote social accountability remains subjective and difficult. Existing approaches rely on self-assessment surveys of residents’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes following social determinants of health training, with few studies explicitly measuring clinical practice. We aimed to characterize social accountability using resident referrals to a food pantry embedded in a pediatric primary care center as an objective measure of resident ability to address unmet health-related social needs in clinical practice.Methods This retrospective observational study occurred from 1 January 2019, to 30 June 2020, at an urban, pediatric primary care center with an embedded food pantry. All pediatric residents received social accountability education during a 2-week Advocacy rotation intern year. During clinic visits, pediatric residents were expected to act on results of a standardized social screen that included two food insecurity questions. Food pantry referral was the primary outcome. Food pantry referral data were extracted from food pantry logs.Results During the 18-month study period, the pediatric primary care center food pantry was accessed at 1,031 visits. Of the 860 physician-based visits that resulted in pantry referral, 63% (n = 545) were initiated by residents. Eighty-six percent of residents (134/156) made ≥ 1 referral. Across all years, residents placed a mean of 3 (range 1–16) food pantry referrals.Conclusions During our study, most residents placed at least one pantry referral in response to identifying food insecurity either via the screen or during conversation with the family. Referral to a primary care embedded food pantry, one way to address acute food insecurity may serve as a measurable proxy to assess residents’ ability to address unmet health-related social needs and promote social accountability in healthcare delivery.

Social accountability interventions have been implemented in low-and middle-income countries as a strategy to improve state-citizen engagement. However, there has been a minimal systematic attempt to document the effectiveness of social accountability initiatives, especially their ability to stimulate accountability actions by citizens. Subsequently, this paper assesses the effectiveness of a social accountability project in Ghana to build the capacity of citizens to participate in state-society engagements and how such engagements resulted in citizens’ actions. Participants were selected from eight Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana using a mixed-method approach and a multi-stage sampling procedure involving simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Key informant interviews and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect data from representatives of traditional authorities, media houses and public officers from MMDAs. Structured interviews were used to collect data from 240 participants of the social accountability project to complement the qualitative data. The project was relevant in addressing national efforts to increase citizens’ participation in local governance. Furthermore, the project raised awareness and increased knowledge about participatory principles and platforms for participation among citizens. Overall, the social accountability interventions improve state-citizen engagement. The frequency of citizen-state engagements increased with the project’s inception but did not enhance the responsiveness of the MMDAs to citizens’ demands due to resource constraints and the overreliance on intermediaries to follow up on community issues at the MMDA, thereby failing to translate into agency for collective action. As a result, the paper recommends that social accountability interventions should improve cooperation between public officials and community members around the delivery of specific public services to build trust between them. Furthermore, such interventions should orient public officials to be receptive and responsive to the concerns of community members.

Background: Medical schools are called to be socially accountable by medical education and healthcare system stakeholders. Social accountability is a feature of excellent medical education. Medical students are essential to the development of socially accountable medical schools. Therefore, understanding the perceptions and experiences of medical students regarding social accountability is critical for efforts to improve social accountability practices and outcomes. Methods: This cross-sectional online questionnaire-based survey used Google Forms and involved medical students in their fourth and fifth years of study at the Makerere University School of Medicine. The survey was conducted between September 2022 and October 2023. We used a study questionnaire and a validated toolkit designed by students as part of The Training for Health Equity Collaborative to gauge a school's progress towards social accountability in medical schools to collect data on demographics, perceptions and experiences and evaluate social accountability. Results: Out of 555 eligible medical students, 426 responded to the online questionnaire. The response rate was 77%. The mean age of the students was 25.24 ± 4.4 years. Almost three fourths of the students were male (71.3%), and slightly less than two thirds were in their fourth year of study (65%). Almost half of the students (48.1%%) evaluated the school as doing well with regard to social accountability. The evaluation items referring to community-based research and positive impact on the community had the highest mean scores. Only 6 (3.6%) students who reported hearing of social accountability had a clear understanding of social accountability. Students receiving career guidance in secondary school was associated with evaluating social accountability in the medical school as strong (p-0.003). Conclusions: Medical students evaluated the medical school favorably forsocial accountability despite lacking a clear understanding of social accountability. Receiving career guidance in secondary school was significantly associated with a positive evaluation of social accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro (NMFC) programme, a government initiative to address healthcare inequities in South Africa, focuses on the training of indigenous students to become competent healthcare practitioners. A collaboration combining training in a Cuban primary care, preventative system with integration in a South African institution within a quadruple disease burdened healthcare system. This article reflects on integration experience at the University of Witwatersrand, a programme pedagogically positioned within a workplace-based, situated learning framework. Since 2022, community-oriented primary care (COPC) projects became part of the integrated primary care and family medicine learning objectives. This article summarises the experience of the 2021-2022 cohort and calls for the strengthening of undergraduate medical education curricula with learning objectives reflective of social accountability. Contribution: This article spotlights work in the undergraduate space around teaching and experiential learning of community-oriented primary care in line with the journal's scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Accountability and social commitment is one of the philosophical approaches of universities, which focuses more on the responsibility of universities in serving the society. The purpose of this research is to identify the skills expected by the society from the graduates of the master's degree in health education and health promotion in order to increase the level of social accountability. Materials & Methods: This qualitative study was conducted with the quantitative content analysis method at Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences. The statistical population of this research was all the students and graduates of the master's degree in health and the staff in charge of the health education unit in the subcategory of health department, who were invited to the study by available sampling method. The data collection method was a structured interview. Results: This research was conducted with the participation of 19 health education graduates and experts with an average age of 39 years and an average work experience of 14 years. 105 needs and skills of a health education and health promotion expert in the form of four main categories including; The required skills of a health education and health promotion expert in the workplace, useful skills for the workplace that are taught in the university, skills expected in the workplace and expectations from the educational system to increase responsiveness to the needs of society were presented. Conclusion: There is a gap between the skills taught at the university level and the job needs of graduates of this field, and most of this difference is estimated for practical skills. Also, in order to improve responsiveness to the needs of employees and ultimately the needs of the society, the scientific and practical support of health education experts is needed for the workers in the work environment, which requires close interaction of the health department with the health faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of mobile telephones in Africa has enabled a broad range of citizens to join live conversations on call-in radio shows. Both African governments and foreign aid agencies claim that broadcasting such debates can raise awareness, amplify the voices of the poor, and facilitate development and better governance; they now fund a large share of interactive shows in some countries. Critics of such participatory initiatives typically accept that they have powerful effects but worry that debates among citizens are deployed as a technology of "governmentality", producing forms of popular subjectivity compatible with elitist economic systems and technocratic political regimes. This article argues that instrumentalising political debate is harder than either side assumes, and that the consequences of these shows are mainly unintended. It develops an in-depth case of a Zambian call-in radio programme, "Let's Be Responsible Citizens", emphasising the ability of the show's audience, and its host, to subvert the programme's surveillance and governmentality agenda, and to insist that the key responsibilities of citizens are to criticise, rather than adapt to, policies and systems of governance that do not meet their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an expectation that health professions schools respond to priority societal health needs. This expectation is largely based on the underlying assumption that schools are aware of the priority needs in their communities. This paper demonstrates how open-access, pan-national health data can be used to create a reliable health index to assist schools in identifying societal needs and advance social accountability in health professions education. Using open-access data, a psychometric evaluation was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the Canadian Health Indicators Framework (CHIF) conceptual model. A non-linear confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on 67 health indicators, at the health-region level (n = 97) was used to assess the model fit of the hypothesized 10-factor model. Reliability analysis using McDonald's Omega were conducted, followed by Pearson's correlation coefficients. Findings from the non-linear CFA rejected the original conceptual model structure of the CHIF. Exploratory post hoc analyses were conducted using modification indices and parameter constraints to improve model fit. A final 5-factor multidimensional model demonstrated superior fit, reducing the number of indicators from 67 to 32. The 5-factors included: Health Conditions (8-indicators); Health Functions (6-indicators); Deaths (5-indicators); Non-Medical Health Determinants (7-indicators); and Community & Health System Characteristics (6-indicators). All factor loadings were statistically significant (p < 0.001) and demonstrated excellent internal consistency (ω >0.95). Many schools struggle to identify and measure socially accountable outcomes. The process highlighted in this paper and the indices developed serve as starting points to allow schools to leverage open-access data as an initial step in identifying societal needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical schools are increasingly adopting socially accountable mission and curricula, the realisation of which are dependent on engaging individuals to embody the mission's principles in their everyday activities as doctors. However, little is known about how graduates perceive the efforts taken by their medical school to sensitise them to social accountability values, and how they translate this into their working lives. Our aim was to explore and understand graduate perceptions of how their medical school influenced them to embody a social accountability mission in their working lives. Methods: This was a qualitative interview study carried out with graduates/alumni [n = 51] of Christian Medical College, Vellore [CMCV], India, a school with a long-established and explicit social-accountability mission. Data coding and analysis were initially inductive and thematic using Braun and Clarke's six step framework. MacIntyre's virtue ethics theory framed secondary analysis, allowing us to consider the relationships between individual and contextual factors. Results: Our participants perceived that CMCV invested heavily in selecting personal qualities aligned with the CMCV mission. They saw that these qualities were reinforced through various practices: [e.g., placements in resource limited and/or remote and rural settings]; community engagement and expectations [e.g., student self-governance]; role modelling [staff and more senior students]. Much emphasis was placed on sustaining these traditions and practices over time, creating a strong sense of identity and belonging among participants, traditions which were fostered further by the alumni network and continued engagement with CMCV post-graduation. Conclusions: Ensuring social accountable medical education depends on alignment and interactions over time between context and structures, systems and human agents. Further studies are needed to extend understanding of how students from diverse contexts experience socially accountable medical education and translate their educational experience into their thinking and practice after graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to analyze local government strategies in advancing social accountability regarding the environmental impact of Slaughterhouses in Semarang City, Indonesia. It also highlighted the significant challenges experienced by managers in fulfilling social accountability. This social accountability is necessary because it relates to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which have become a global commitment, with a particular focus on point 11 concerning sustainable cities and communities. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, observation, scientific literature, government official reports, and actual news using a qualitative approach case study. This study identified several policy problems, including the technical requirements for a hygienic, clean, and healthy environment that had not been met at the Semarang City Slaughterhouse. In addition, there was no preventive mechanism from the manager to identify diseases in animals before being slaughtered. The institutional changes of the slaughterhouse, through several regional regulations, had also not succeeded in realising social accountability due to the negative environmental aspects caused. The community lacked a bargaining value and the right channel to pressure the slaughterhouse to carry out social accountability for environmental management. Therefore, this study suggested that the institutional approach and emphasis from CSOs/NGOs will have more impact in realising social accountability for environmental management in public organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ICIJ's release of the Panama Papers in 2016 opened up a wealth of previously private financial information on the tax avoidance, tax evasion, and wealth concealment activities of politicians, government officials, and their allies. Drawing upon prior accountability and ethics focused research, we utilize a dataset of almost 28 M tweets sent between 2016 and early 2020 to consider the microdetails and overall trajectory of this particular social accountability conversation. The study shows how the publication of previously private financial information triggered a Twitter-based social accountability conversation. It also illustrates how social accountability utterances are intra-textually constructed by the inclusion of social characters, the personal pronoun 'we,' and the use of deontic responsibility verbs. Finally, the study highlights how the tweets from this group of participants changed over the longer-term but continued to focus on social accountability topics. The provided analysis contributes to our understanding of social accountability, including how the release of previously private accounting-based financial information can trigger a grassroots social accountability conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social accountability entails providing equitable and accessible services that are tailor-made for the community’s healthcare needs and enable rehabilitation therapists to improve the efficiency and efficacy of healthcare delivery and their response. Enabling them to provide optimal care during their community service year requires understanding the gaps in their knowledge, experience and the support they provide to the communities they service. Methods: Four in-depth individual interviews and four focus group discussions were conducted via Zoom. The qualitative responses to the questions related to the challenges and recommendations associated with social accountability in clinical settings were analysed using an inductive thematic approach via NVIVO. Results: Four sub-themes emerged for each of the two areas of interest: the challenges relating to (1) budget and equipment constraints, (2) staff shortages, (3) cultural and language barriers and (4) scope of practice limitations. The recommendations related to (5) collaboration with community caregivers, (6) service inclusion in primary health care clinics, (7) improved executive management support and (8) continuing professional development. Conclusion: Equipping graduates with the knowledge, skills and support needed to work in an under-resourced setting is essential for community service rehabilitation therapists to ensure social accountability, given that they often work alone, specifically in rural settings. Contribution: Being aware of the challenges that face community service rehabilitation therapists, having the necessary tools and health facility management support will enable ongoing improvements in their ability to provide socially accountable services.

Background: Social accountability is the obligation of health care providers to address the priority health concerns of the community they serve and of universities to ensure that graduates understand these social responsibilities. Although social accountability can combat systemic health inefficiencies, it is not well-understood or practised. Aim: The study aimed to explore community service rehabilitation therapists’ understanding of social accountability. Setting: The study was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: This study used an interpretive exploratory design and purposively recruited 27 community service rehabilitation therapists namely, audiologists, speech-language therapists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists working in public sector health facilities in rural and peri-urban areas. Four focus group discussions and four free attitude interviews were conducted, the results being thematically analysed. Results: Despite most of the participants not being instructed in social accountability as part of their formal training or institutional induction, three themes emerged based on their experiences. These themes include describing social accountability, values of social accountability, and values of community-based rehabilitation applicable to social accountability. Conclusion: Inclusion of instruction on social accountability as part of their formal training and health facility induction would contribute to rehabilitation therapists’ understanding of social accountability. Contribution: The study contributes to data on rehabilitation education and community service training regarding social accountability within a South African context and has captured how experiences gained during community service contribute to the rehabilitation therapists’ understanding of social accountability.

Brazilian literature on intergovernmental cooperation to formulate and deliver public policies (referred here as “inter-municipal public consortia”), suggests a lack of managerial quality and social accountability in these arrangements. The studies, however, do not explore the context of management and social accountability in the municipalities that participate in these consortia, observing whether these elements influence the decision of local governments to engage in intergovernmental cooperation. The research addresses this issue by analyzing inter-municipal consortia in health, education, and sanitation policies in Brazil. It uses a Probit model where there are four independent variables: state capacities (existence of municipal plan and funds and single command of the sector) and social accountability (municipal councils with representatives of the government and civil society). When controlled by other demographic, socioeconomic, political, and financial variables, the results do not provide empirical support for the hypotheses about the influence of local management and social accountability in the municipalities’ decision to cooperate. The study concludes that there is a paradox when expecting managerial quality and more social accountability in inter-municipal consortia. At the same time, these elements are not observed as crucial in the municipality’s decisions to participate in these cooperative arrangements.

Background and Aim: Social accountability is defined as identifying social problems and needs, planning for resolving them and evaluating the effect of the plans. Considering the vital role in providing public health, the universities of medical sciences are the most important ones for fulfilling this mission and directing their education, research and service activities toward addressing health concerns of the community. Despite of these attempts, social accountability has not realized completely and satisfying yet. The aim of this study was exploring factors affecting social accountability and community-based medical education in universities of medical sciences from Iran’s educational development authorities’ view point. Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative study performed by Education Development Center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in November 2022. Participants were 68 managers of Education Development Centers and 323 managers of Education Development Offices of schools and hospitals of universities of medical sciences in Iran. Participants were assigned to 8 focus groups. Conventional content analysis was used to extract the categories and subcategories. Results: At the first step 541 codes were extracted which were integrated in to 86 ones after defining similarities. These codes then were categorized into 18 sub-categories and 6 categories, namely “Curriculum” including: curriculum revision, approaches, credits and longitudinal themes and new disciplines, “Community-based education” including: educational fields and creating the foundation, “Students” including: students as teacher, educating students and graduates, “Faculty members” including: faculty members’ services, motivation and compensation and administration, “Evaluation” including: student assessment and program evaluation, and “Management” including: management and leadership, organizations, Interdepartmental communication and research. Conclusion: In this study a comprehensive collection of factors affecting SA in universities of medical sciences were identified and categorized. These factors that are compatible with medical education context in Iran can be used by top managers and educational administrators as a framework for short and long-term planning.

Background: Sudan’s history is marred by ongoing sociopolitical challenges, with deep cultural divisions fueling numerous wars. A new conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, pushing the country closer to a full-scale civil war. This war has severely crippled Sudan’s already fragile healthcare system, rendering 70% of hospitals in combat zones nonoperational, causing 12,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, and leaving 11 million in dire need of healthcare. More than seven million people are displaced, half of which are children, and are facing severe health challenges, especially vulnerable groups. Heath situation is threatening with unchecked spread of outbreaks of communicable diseases that were previously controlled and marked failure in meeting the health demands of patients with noncommunicable diseases, reproductive and child health issues, and people with serious conditions that require adequate follow-up. Moreover, the projections threaten with more catastrophic consequences including famine, environmental destruction, and further displacement of people. This review article highlights the urgency of the situation and explores potential solutions to enrich global understanding of crisis management. Methods: To comprehensively assess the impact of the crisis and propose a way forward, we drew data by exploring search engines and databases such as Google, Humanitarian Agencies Websites, Google Scholer, and PubMed along with some relevant reports. The search terms included are “Sudan’s war”, “impact of war on healthcare systems”, and “Sudan’s armed conflicts”. Results: More than 19 publications on the impact of the war on health in addition to periodic reports from international organizations and governmental authorities were reviewed. Conclusion: Although all publications point to the gravity of the situation and the need for prompt response, this crisis offers a unique opportunity to rebuild Sudan’s struggling healthcare system with the principles of social accountability. Through domestic and international collaboration, this sector can become a model for similar nations, meeting the needs of its people and promoting sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dearth of empirical research on transformative health professions education informed this study to examine the factors that influence the perspectives of the cohort of health professionals in the WiSDOM study on the learning environment, transformation, and social accountability at a South African university. Methods: WiSDOM, a prospective longitudinal cohort study, consists of eight health professional groups: clinical associates, dentists, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, oral hygienists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists. At study inception in 2017, participants completed a self-administered questionnaire that included four domains of selection criteria (6 items); the learning environment (5 items); redress and transformation (8 items); and social accountability (5 items). In the analysis, we, rescaled the original Likert scoring of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) to a new scale ranging from 0-10. We calculated the mean scores for each item and across items for the four domains, with low scores (0.00-1.99) classified as poor and high scores (8.00-10.00) as excellent. We used multiple linear regression analysis to compare the mean scores, while adjusting for different socio-demographiccharacteristics. Results: The mean age of the 501 eligible participants was 24.1 years; the majority female (72.9%), 45.3% self-identified as Black African; and 12.2% were born in a rural area. The domains of selection criteria and redress and transformation obtained mean scores of 5.4 and 5.3 out of 10 respectively, while social accountability and the learning environment obtained mean scores of 6.1 and 7.4 out of 10 respectively. Self-identified race influenced the overall mean scores of selection criteria, redress and transformation, and social accountability (p < 0.001). Rural birth influenced the perceptions on selection criteria, redress and transformation (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The results suggest the need to create inclusive learning environments that foreground redress, transformation, and social accountability, while advancing the discourse on decolonised health sciences education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the perceived SA for medical students in Beni-Suef University, Egypt. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of 6 months among medical students at faculty of medicine, Beni-Suef University through an online survey using google form. For data collection, an English validated questionnaire developed in partnership by the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) and the Training for Health Equity Network (THEnet) was used. Students' mean SA score was 17.3±7.1. Perceived SA scores ranged from 18 to 26 for 40.9% of participants, while 38.9% of them had scores ranging from (9-17), indicating that the faculty is doing well, However, there is a need to identify areas of weakness and advocate for strategies to improve SA among students. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences in age, gender, residence, and academic year across students with different scores. Although half of the medical students of Beni-Suef university had acceptable SA, but there are areas for improvement and weakness to fix within the faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]