Social Accountability of Medical Schools and Social Representations of Medical Students in the Context of the More Doctors Program

Abstract

ABSTRACT Several debates, in the national and international context, have suggested the need for changes in medical education, so that it is in line with the organization of health systems. From this perspective, it is proposed that schools be guided by social accountability, which consists of ordering teaching, research and activities in service to meet health needs with a focus on areas that are difficult to reach. A more recent reference in medical education at the national level was the More Doctors Program, which provided for a new regulatory framework for medical education. It is evaluated that the modifications introduced by the Program can influence the elaboration of new social representations of medical students. Through the theory of social representations, a qualitative study was carried out to analyze the perception about the social accountability of the medical schools of 149 medical students, of the seventh semester of four courses of Federal Higher Education Institutions in the Northeast Region. Two of the courses are in the interior and were created by virtue of the More Doctors Program and another two correspond to courses in the state capital existing for more than 60 years. From the curriculum analysis of each course, they were termed “traditional” or “new”. In the results, it was observed that the students of the different courses resemble each other in terms of admission by quotas, but students of “new” courses have a greater entrance under affirmative action policies, including regional access criteria. Both groups of students have emphasized the term “duty” as a priority, which may refer to a more individual scope of the notion of accountability. The terms “citizenship” and “ethics” were also highlighted in both groups. Only for students in “new” schools were terms such as “commitment”, “justice” and “SUS” cited. This insight suggests a broader notion of social accountability in school students created under the More Doctors Program, despite insufficient national literature on this topic. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of the Program in the implantation of medical schools in regions that did not previously have this training. It also reinforces the relevance of the dedication of the teachers who implemented the courses in the interior of the Northeast, demonstrating the need to deepen in the themes that involve teacher development. It is suggested that there is a need to broaden the analysis of experiences such as these, so that they can be explored with the radicalism necessary to strengthen the Unified Health System.