Teaching medical students social responsibility: the right thing to do.

As academic medicine has become more focused on the economic pressures of the marketplace, some educators have expressed concern about whether appropriate attention is being given to the character development and moral education of medical students. The authors conclude that medical schools do indeed have a duty to teach their medical students to be socially responsible. They define a socially responsible individual as a person who takes part in activities that contribute to the happiness, health, and prosperity of a community and its members. They suggest that medical students should participate in carefully designed, socially responsible activities in order to (1) practice and have reinforced such qualities as reliability, trustworthiness, dependability, altruism, and compassion; (2) partially reimburse society for the cost of their medical education; (3) increase their exposure to a population-based approach to health care; and (4) help medical schools fulfill their social contract with the public. The authors outline the process for developing a curriculum to teach social responsibility to medical students and list some of the key questions faculty and administrators must address in the processes of development and implementation. They conclude that while faculty responsible for implementing a curriculum in social responsibility must be highly committed and prepared to address numerous difficult questions concerning the curriculum's philosophy, structure, and function, the potential benefits of such a curriculum are well worth the effort.