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While it is recognized that a variety of educational opportunities exist for junior hospital doctors, this study was designed to assess the incidence and ensuing benefit of cooperative learning. Postal questionnaires were sent to senior house officers (n = 60) working in Paediatric Medicine in nine Northern Ireland hospitals and additional data were collected from focus group interviews held in four of these hospitals. With a response rate of 80%, the questionnaire indicated that the SHOs were positive about working and learning as members of a team and that communication and cooperation were necessary skills. In addition to the different learning situations that occur in hospital, the focus groups highlighted the facts that team working and group learning improve patient care and knowledge acquisition. Findings show that not only do professional networking and group-assisted learning occur in hospital training, but that these were considered to be of great benefit to the SHOs.
Robert Gibson (Sat,) studied this question.