Dear Editor Social accountability consists of attention to societal needs and a sense of duty to engage in behaviors that address those needs. This social contract bestows certain rights and privileges upon physicians to engage with social problems which “fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction” (Ashton, Citation2006). As such, it is necessary for medical institutions to educate and empower medical students to become advocates for society’s collective health. At the University of Michigan Medical School, our Student Diversity Council (SDC) has identified and emphasized the support needed for our societal and trainee identities, both ascribed and assumed, to engage in this advocacy, which is often complicated by differing belief systems. The intersection of these identities has intensified the psychological burden of students (Kumagai et al., Citation2017). Adding to the complexity of becoming a medical professional, students are bridled by socio-political events of police brutality and racially charged killings. To amplify underrepresented voices in medicine and to facilitate spaces to process traumatic events, we restructured our SDC shortly after the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd to center on the pillars of education, outreach, and activism.
展开▼
