Happy New Year! and welcome to the new series of The Traitors, the BBC show where contestants are divided into ‘Faithful’ and ‘Traitors,’ with the winner(s) being the last person or people standing (as long as all the Traitors have all been found). Two tribes at odds with each other, each trying to work out who they can trust.
So what does a TV show like The Traitors have to do with partnership working across health and social care? Well….
In the mid nineties I completed a Masters Degree in Community and Primary Care – towards reflective practice. The masters programme was run by the Marylebone Centre Trust, who also ran a very innovative and dynamic general practice in the heart of London, England. Students were drawn from all walks of life including social care, health care, housing, people with lived experience and the clergy.
One of the course leaders had been doing research into what they described as nursing, doctor and social worker stereo types and archetypes. The research looked at the perception each professional had of each other before they started their pre-registration training, during the training and at the end of their training. As part of their pre-registration training they also did some of their training together.
Before starting their training, students stereo typical perspectives of each other were that: nurses tended to be wishy washy and subservient to the doctors, doctors tended to be arrogant, rugby playing heavy drinkers, whist social workers tended to be 2CV driving guardian readers.
Once all the students had completed the first three years of the training they were all interviewed again to see how their perceptions of each other had changed and what the researchers found surprised them. Most of the nursing, doctor and social worker students felt that the perceptions they had at the beginning of their pre-registration training had been confirmed – that nurses, doctors and social workers were exactly as they had perceived them and that each group of students had now become those stereotypes.
This research led me to consider that perhaps pre-registration training is as much about socialising people into ‘their profession’ as it is about learning the knowledge and skills they need to be a nurse, doctor, or social worker. After all, most of us need to fit in somewhere, and perhaps becoming a nurse, social worker or doctor stereotype is the best way to ensure that as we progress in our career, we do so because we are ‘one of us.’
I often think that some of these stereo typical ways of thinking about different professions is also reflected in the general public’s perception of different professions. Which of the health and social care professions do the general public trust most – nurses? Who do the general public trust least – social workers? And what do the general public think of doctors – It depends on who the doctor is?
When I moved from the health service to local government, in semi-jest my nursing colleagues suggested I was ‘moving to the dark side.’ Interestingly even today in conversation with colleagues I’ve often heard people quietly in-jest say similar things. This makes me wonder if the socialisation of people into a particular professional group runs deep even today; and what does that mean for the way in which we enable people from different professional groups to work in partnership and in more integrated ways.
In my experience whilst pre-professional training expects people to conform to stereotypes (or become those stereotypes). The more people work in multi- professional teams the more their stereotypical prejudices start to break down. Yes, people continue to identify by their initial profession, however, over time the team they are part of and the people they are supporting slowly begin to assume more importance. Yes, professional identity is important and we need to continue to work hard to mitigate against being defined by our pre-registration training experience. One way we can do this is to explore how our preregistration training influences our perception of other people we work with. Here are three questions you could ask yourself and the people in your team;
- What three words would you use to describe your own profession?
- What three words would you use to describe other professions?
- How does working in a team with other professionals influence the way you describe the people in your team?
You might be surprised by the answers.
Jim Thomas
January 2025
Just for reference – I started my career doing nurse training. I have spent most of my career working in social care. I used to own a 2CV and I started reading the Guardian when I was a nurse, just saying :)….
Notes
I haven’t been able to find a digital copy of the original research. I think I have a paper copy in the loft. When I find it I will share a copy on my website.
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