Generalism
The Australian health care system is rapidly moving towards a team approach for general practice. To help inform future workforce reforms in the changing context of general practice, we have undertaken a systematic narrative literature review of the place of generalism in the 2020 primary care team. The review found that generalism in health care has been written about for over the past 50 years, but there was no agreed upon definition of what generalism is. We have identified the essential dimensions of generalism and represented these as the continual interaction of three essential dimensions: ways of being (values and principles); ways of knowing (types of knowledge); and ways of doing (types of actions). Policy options to strengthen the place of generalism in the 2020 primary care team are now being developed. A final report is due 14th November, 2007.