Short summary

Uncertainty tolerance (UT) is an important characteristic of physicians and patients that may influence various health care-related outcomes. Empirical evidence suggests that physicians' UT is associated with their choice of medical specialty, attitudes towards various aspects of clinical practice, emotional well-being, and clinical decision making. The aim of this mixed-methods pilot study is to pave the way for future efforts to intentionally cultivate UT among physician trainees, as a means of helping them cope with uncertainty more effectively, both professionally and personally.  

Rationale

Uncertainty tolerance (UT), defined as the set of negative and positive psychological responses-cognitive, emotional, and behavioral-provoked by the conscious awareness of ignorance about particular aspects of the world, is an important, trait-level characteristic of physicians and patients that may influence various health care-related outcomes. 1 Available empirical evidence suggests that physicians' UT is associated with their choice of medical specialty, attitudes towards various aspects of clinical practice, emotional well-being, and clinical decision making.  Emerging evidence also suggests that UT is mutable; it may evolve and increase over the course of clinical training. UT thus appears to be a phenomenon with critical implications for medical practice and education.  

Yet much remains unknown about the nature of UT and its evolution during clinical training.  UT in health care has been the focus of a growing empirical literature; however, the quality of existing evidence has been limited by inconsistencies in the conceptualization and measurement of UT, and other methodological problems including the largely cross-sectional nature of most past studies. More research is needed to better understand and measure the phenomenon of UT as it is manifest in clinical practice and medical training.  

The overarching aim of the pilot study is to begin to address this need, and to pave the way for future efforts to intentionally cultivate UT among physician trainees, as a means of helping them cope with uncertainty more effectively, both professionally and personally. This will be a mixed-methods study aimed at generating preliminary data to inform definitive, larger-scale studies aimed at understanding and improving UT among physicians.

Description of the cohort

Physician trainees at different levels of training and practicing in different countries and practice settings. 

Data and biological material

Questionnaires and interviews.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

• Professor Pål Guldbrandsen, PhD

Nordland Hospital, Bodø, Norway

• MD Eirik Hugaas Ofstad, PhD

Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME, United States

• Paul K. J. Han, MD.