Interdisciplinary education of social accountability in short-term workshops of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Background: Accountability refers to a set of concepts and social actions by which individuals or organizations have a sense of commitment to explain and to justify their behavior towards the others. Since it is one of the overall objectives of each university, the present study conducted to evaluate the effect of interdisciplinary education of social accountability in short-term workshops on medical student’s knowledge. Methods: The present study followed a qualitative-quantitative method with the qualitative stage conducted as group interview. In the first phase, eight faculty members were selected in order to determine the scope and the main topics of social accountability. The second phase was training workshops of social accountability using intervention method. Before and after the course, the knowledge of concepts was assessed using a valid and reliable questionnaire. Results: The main scope and criteria of the social accountability were extracted based on the results of the experts’ group discussion in eight items. The results of investigating the quality of the workshops revealed the student’s satisfaction of the quality of presentations (88%), the appropriate time management (86%), and the new information (85%). Also, the results of the second phase demonstrated the educational effectiveness of social responsibility in the student’s comments (pretest Mean±SD=13.86 and posttest Mean±SD=14.80, P=0.002). The results of the workshop showed a significant effect of social accountability education on the participants. Conclusion: The students comprehended the purposes of the application. So, the probability of changing the behavior in medical students is possible with the clinical perspective. However, the stability of this achievement needs sufficient enforcement.