Motivating medical students for social accountability in medical schools

Introduction: As health professionals, physicians are accountablefor their professional practice. The aim of this study was to explainthe medical students’ motivation to attain social accountability inmedical schools, based on the experience of both students andfaculties.Methods: We conducted a qualitative conventional contentanalysis research in Shiraz University of medical sciences in Iransince 2018 through purposive, snowball sampling. The data werecollected through semi-structured interviews with 35 participantsi.e., medical students and teachers. Coding was carried out byconventional content analysis. Results: We drew four themes and ten related subthemes and thecentral variable explains the motivation of medical students towardsocial accountability and makes a link among the subthemes,was purposeful beliefs and behavior. The key dimensions duringmotivational process which generated the social accountabilitydevelopment in medical students consisted of social culture ofmedicine, medical school reality, teaching and learning strategyand creating purposeful beliefs and behavior. Also, eight subthemesof individual motivation, content motivation process motivation,attending to the outcomes of the curriculum, traditional routinecentered curriculum, observational learning, role modeling,hidden curriculum, respect for social values and norms andbenefitting the society emerged which explain the process ofmotivate for social accountability by creating purposeful beliefsand behavior in medical students.Conclusions: The core variable of motivation toward socialaccountability must be reflected in future developmentalprograms, curriculum planning and training general physicians.In other words, the best efforts for purposeful beliefs and behaviorin medical students, must be made to improve motivation towardsocial accountability.