The term interdisciplinary has received
frequent use in the healthcare literature for the past several
decades, even though there is a disagreement among
healthcare professionals as to how that term is defined. Some
use the term to refer to situations in which more than one
discipline is involved in either a patient’s care, or a teaching
situation, although the interaction between members of different
disciplines may be limited. Others use the term to describe
situations where various disciplines are involved in reaching a
common goal, and each discipline brings to the job his/her
expertise. Still other healthcare professionals use the term to
refer to situations where healthcare disciplines specificity blurs,
and expertise overlap based on the requirements of the
particular interaction.