Integrating students into interdisciplinary teams: extending the caring circle.

Interdisciplinary teams are considered essential for meeting the health care delivery challenges of the 21st century. Integrating students into these teams is critical to attracting and sustaining a future workforce with the knowledge and skills to maximize health care outcomes. This article describes a caring circle approach to interdisciplinary teams that promotes student learning and benefits the team. The caring circle is based on building relationships through shared knowledge, shared practices, and shared values. Specific strategies to build the caring circle using these building blocks are discussed.