With advances in monitoring and telemedicine, the complexity of care administered in the home to properly selected patients can approach that delivered in the hospital. The challenges include making sure that qualified personnel regularly visit the patient at home, both individually and in teams; information is accurately communicated among the caregiver teams across venues and over time; and patients understand the information communicated to them by providers. Despite these challenges, the benefits of treating chronically or terminally ill patients at home are significant. Among the most important are improved patient satisfaction and reduced cost. Numerous studies have shown that most patients prefer to spend their convalescence or their last days at home. The financial benefits of enabling patients to recover or to die at home are significant.

Bandura's social learning theory provides a useful conceptual framework to understand medical students' perceptions of a house calls experience at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Social learning and role modeling reflect Liaison Committee on Medical Education guidelines for "Medical schools (to) ensure that the learning environment for medical students promotes the development of explicit and appropriate professional attributes (attitudes, behaviors, and identity) in their medical students." This qualitative study reports findings from open-ended survey questions from 123 medical students who observed a preceptor during house calls to elderly homebound patients. Their comments included reflections on the medical treatment as well as interactions with family and professional care providers. Student insights about the social learning process they experienced during house calls to geriatric patients characterized physician role models as dedicated, compassionate, and communicative. They also described patient care in the home environment as comprehensive, personalized, more relaxed, and comfortable. Student perceptions reflect an appreciation of the richness and complexity of details learned from home visits and social interaction with patients, families, and caregivers.

This Web-based case system provided a novel approach to teach and assess the competencies needed for virtual teams. This approach may be a valuable new tool for measuring competency in interprofessional practice.