Background: 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.
Purpose: 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusion: 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.
Keywords: Complex patients; Hotspotting; Interprofessional education; Social determinants; Team-based care.
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