What Should Students and Trainees Be Taught About Turfing and Where Patients Belong?

Abstract

Turfing is a colloquialism that refers to what clinicians do to patients whose needs do not fit neatly and tidily into typical clinical placement protocols, especially during inpatient admissions from a hospital's emergency department. This term and this practice are both clinically and ethically problematic because a patient is rarely, if ever, "turfed" to their advantage. Ethically speaking, turfing constitutes deferral of responsibility for a patient's admission or care to colleagues. This article suggests when and under which circumstances it is clinically and ethically appropriate to defer a patient's care and suggests why turfing happens despite its negative influence on both physicians and patients.