A student-run course in interprofessional relations

The topic of working relationships among health professionals is one which has long been neglected in professional school curricula. During the winter of 1976 students from four health professions--medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy--initiated a course designed to improve their knowledge of one another's training and skills, with the larger aim of preparing themselves to work in health care teams. The nine weekly meetings are described in terms of their content and students' reactions. In the discussion the underlying themes of legal responsibilities and of sex-roles as factors in health care team functioning are identified. Suggestions are made about format and techniques that seem to be useful for courses of this type.