Nurse Educatw n Tcdny zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA (1988) 8,273-277 0 Longman zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Group L’K Ltd 1988 The assessment of interprofessional relationships in nursing within a management syllabus in a nursing degree course Mary Fraser zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Nursing involves work in an interprofessional arena. This work involves nurses in negotiations about patient care with other health professionals. In order to be effective in this area of their work nurses need to understand the nature of these negotiations and their underlying principles. This paper outlines a course component aimed at giving students this understanding, and the assessment procedure which follows the component is described. It is argued that this assessment procedure is a method of enhancing interprofessional understanding and student performance in the assessment is discussed. Good health care increasingly depends on how well the professionals concerned are able to work together. One of the health professions involved as much, if not more, than others in this team process is the nursing profession. PROFESSIONAL TEAM WORK The idea of professionals forming a complex system of negotiations when working together for patient care, is as much part of the work as the practical tasks. Research in this area has tended to concentrate on negotiation between professionals as a form of bargaining, under- pinned not only by the individual’s, but also by the profession’s interests; the effect of training seems to be very influential in this process. Both Strauss et al (1964) and Roth (1984) describe the Mary Fraser MSc BSc(Hons) RGN ONC Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Course Leader, BSc(Hons) in Nursing, Department of Community Studies, Brighton Polytechnic, Falmer, Brighton BNl 9PH Manuscript accepted 8 March 1988 process of negotiation amongst different health professional groups, whereas Goldie (1977), Mercer (1980) and Larkin (1983) have investi- gated the use and effect of a variety of strategies by different health professionals to maximise their potential in pursuit of their goals. A further line of investigation has been sug- gested by New (1968) in his analysis of the concept of teamwork; he concludes that essential ingredients for a group to work together are composed of two major axes. The first axis is a series of assumptions about: zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYX equali of the members - even though their status symbols and items may be left behind, this cannot hide the fact that some people are more equal than others; knowledge - this is related to the power of individual members of the group. By with- holding or divulging information at crucial moments, one individual can exert tremen- dous power over the other members; the knowledge each professton has will be related to specific kinds of information as a 273