Practice intentions at entry to and exit from medical schools aspiring to social accountability: findings from the Training for Health Equity Network Graduate Outcome Study.

Background: Understanding the impact of selection and medical education on practice intentions and eventual practice is an essential component of training a fit-for-purpose health workforce distributed according to population need. Existing evidence comes largely from high-income settings and neglects contextual factors. This paper describes the practice intentions of entry and exit cohorts of medical students across low and high income settings and the correlation of student characteristics with these intentions.

Translating medical school social missions to student experiences.

Context: There is a growing focus on the social missions of medical schools as a way of expressing an institutional commitment to service, responsibility and accountability. However, there has been little exploration of how a social mission translates to student experiences.

Methods: This multicentre study explored how the social missions of eight medical schools (from Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Philippines, South Africa, Sudan and the USA) translated to their medical education programmes, and how their students perceived the mission.

Impact of selection strategies on representation of underserved populations and intention to practise: international findings.

Context: Socially accountable medical schools aim to reduce health inequalities by training workforces responsive to the priority health needs of underserved communities. One key strategy involves recruiting students from underserved and unequally represented communities on the basis that they may be more likely to return and address local health priorities. This study describes the impacts of different selection strategies of medical schools that aspire to social accountability on the presence of students from underserved communities in their medical education programmes and on student practice intentions.

Medicinal plants used as home remedies: a family survey by first year medical students.

Background: There is a hierarchical organisation of knowledge in the use of medicinal plants in communities. Medicinal use knowledge starts in the home and is passed on to family members. Next in the hierarchy are neighbours, village elders and finally, traditional healers being the most knowledgeable.