Does a socially-accountable curriculum transform health professional students into competent, work-ready graduates? A cross-sectional study of three medical schools across three countries.

Socially-accountable health professional education (SAHPE) is committed to achieving health equity through training health-workers to meet local health needs and serve disadvantaged populations. This research assesses the biomedical and socially-accountable competencies and work-readiness of first year graduates from socially-accountable medical schools in Australia, the United States and Sudan. A self-administered survey to hospital and community health facility staff closely associated with the training and/or supervision of first year medical graduates from three SAHPE medical schools. Likert scale ratings of key competencies of SAHPE graduates (as a group) employed as first-year doctors, compared to first year doctors from other medical schools in that country (as a group). Supervisors rated medical graduates from the 3 SAHPE schools highly for socially-accountable competencies ('communication skills', 'teamwork', 'professionalism', 'work-readiness', 'commitment to practise in rural communities', 'commitment to practise with underserved ethnic and cultural populations'), as well as 'overall performance' and 'overall clinical skills'. These findings suggest SAHPE medical graduates are well regarded by their immediate hospital supervisors, and SAHPE can produce a medical workforce as competent as from more traditional medical schools, but with greater commitment to health equity, working with underserved populations, and addressing local health needs.