Building the Generalist Physician to Support Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Undergraduate medical education serves as a foundation for the medical student to develop the skills of a generalist physician. Given the "blurring" of the demarcations between childhood and adulthood and the increased scope of pediatric practice, an extra layer has been added to medical education which seeks to address care across the lifespan. While approaches have been developed to teach this layer, clerkship reform has not focused on advancing the clinical science of adolescence. Furthermore, as we look towards the vanguard of entrustable professional activities (EPA), specific attention to transition care for the adolescent has seen minimal attention. Drawing on prior examples of curriculum integration between specialties as well as solutions to complex care management from clinical reasoning, we suggest that attention to the development of the generalist physician requires attention to the combined medicine-pediatrics specialty.