Interprofessional education for medical and nursing students: evaluation of a programme

Abstract

This paper reports and evaluates a programme of interprofessional education for final-year medical students and fourth-year undergraduate BSc nursing students. The programme was designed in the light of social psychological studies of intergroup behaviour (the contact hypothesis). Key features included opportunities to work as equals in pairs and small groups on shared tasks in a cooperative atmosphere. Topics included communication between nurses, doctors and patients, deliberate self-harm by patients, and ethical issues in clinical care. A comprehensive evaluation of the effects of the programme on one cohort of 39 participants revealed that overall attitudes towards the other profession had improved. Participants reported increased understanding of the knowledge and skills, roles and duties of the other profession. The programme was positively evaluated by both groups of participants.