Resource Center

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Team Care Conference, which took place September 26-28, 1991 in Baltimore, Maryland.  It is reproduced here with the permission of the authors.

This paper provides a review of the concept of "turf" as it relates to the establishment and functioning of interprofessional teams. The paper is based on eighteen years of experience of the Commission of Interprofessional Education and Practice at the Ohio State University. In this paper a number of factors are identified which contribute to turf problems including available resources such as money and space, professional education programs, and socialization into the helping professions. Suggestions are made for overcoming each of these factors as adminstrators and professionals establish and develop interprofessional teams.