Shared learning for doctors and social workers: Evaluation of a programme

This paper reports a shared learning programme for final year social work and medical students which was designed in the light of social psychological studies of intergroup behaviour (the Contact Hypothesis). Key features included institutional support for the programme and opportunities to work as equals in pairs and small groups on shared tasks in a co-operative atmosphere. Topics included alcohol abuse, dealing with psychiatric emergencies, deliberate self-harm and community services for people with learning disabilities. A comprehensive evaluation of the effects of the programme on one cohort of 85 participants revealed that overall attitudes towards the other profession had improved and that each saw the other as more professionally competent at the end of the programme. Participants reported increased knowledge of the attitudes, skills, roles and duties of the other profession and of how to work together more effectively.