Interprofessional student hotspotting: preparing future health professionals to deliver team-based care for complex patients.

Interprofessional student hotspotting involves experiential and longitudinal learning about team-based care for patients with complex medical and social needs. As an emerging strategy for interprofessional education, there have been few research studies to examine student perspectives. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach to examine the experiences and perspectives of health professions students who participated in a six-month interprofessional student hotspotting program. At the end of the program, focus group interviews were conducted with 24 health professions students from medicine, social work, pharmacy, nursing, and health psychology. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: Observed benefits of interprofessional collaboration ; Gained skills for collaborative care ; Experienced difficulty managing group dynamics ; and Learned approaches to caring for complex patients. The hotspotting program helped deepen students' appreciation for interprofessional team-based care. Repeated practice of teamwork skills during the six-month clinical learning experience resulted in students feeling more prepared to provide collaborative care for complex patients. • Student hotspotting is a strategy for providing longitudinal and experiential IPE. • Students observed the benefits of interprofessional collaborative care. • Collaboration skills were practiced while providing team-based care to patients. • Faculty guidance can assist students to grow their ability to manage team conflict. • Hotspotting promotes learning the care of medically and socially complex patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]