Needs Assessment and Determination of the Priorities of Accountable Education in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences

Background: Identifying the needs and priorities of accountable education is an important issue for providing needs based training and empowering students in responding to the real needs of the community. The present study was conducted to identify and prioritize accountable educational needs in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This is a qualitative research. The participants in this study were selected through purposive sampling. The participants consisted of faculty members (18 people) as well as experienced managers and experts in healthcare centers and hospitals (16 people). A four-stage framework was conducted for this study. The stages included the provision of the initial list of accountable education needs, evaluation of the initial list by the experts, provision of the final list of needs for prioritization, and identification of appropriate solutions to meet the priorities obtained. Results: Results of the prioritization of accountable education areas indicated road accidents as first priority with the highest mean score. Medical ethics and stress management were respectively the second and third priorities. Conclusion: Identifying the priorities of accountable education may result in optimal use of limited resources in order to functionalize the education provided to students and also to be used in research.