Nurses, doctors, and their superordinate goal

[sue_frantz]

Probably like you, a lot of my Intro Psych students are interested in medicine. Most are interested in nursing, but a smattering are interested in becoming physicians or another type of medical professional, such as respiratory therapists.

This New York Times article (Brown & Bergman, 2019), coauthored by nurse and a physician, will be of interest to these future medical professionals in your course.

After covering ingroups/outgroups and superordinate goals in the social psychology chapter, ask your students to read the article and address these questions.

What factors contribute to dividing medical professionals into the subgroups of doctors and nurses? For example, physicians have higher status than nurses.  

What superordinate goal do the article authors suggest would bring nurses and doctors together?

At about 1,000 words, the article is short enough for students to read and discuss in class.

Alternatively, it’s an excellent real-world example to bring into your lecture.

From the new APA Intro Psych student learning outcomes, this activity addresses:

Identify examples of relevant and practical applications of psychological principles to everyday life.

Integrative theme: Applying psychological principles can changes our lives in positive ways.

Reference

Brown, T., & Bergman, S. (2019, December 31). Doctors, nurses and the paperwork crisis that could unite them. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/opinion/doctors-nurses-and-the-paperwork-crisis-that-could-unite-...