Mapping Uncertainty in Medicine; what do you do when you don’t know what to do? came about when GP educators Avril Danczak and Alison Lea were training doctors  to deal with with the uncertainties of clinical practice. Uncertainty is pervasive in all clinical work, because even if your knowledge and skills are perfect (unlikely!), each patient is unique, and they all have different ways of seeing and responding to their experiences. Clinicians in generalist specialties often talk about “tolerating uncertainty”; we felt we needed to go further by helping clinicians to develop  confidence in dealing with uncertainty positively. We describe how to understand and classify uncertainty; this in itself makes uncertainty more manageable. However, we also explain how to select and use the most effective skills to use to unlock uncertain situations.

This is covered in great detail in the book

Mapping Uncertainty in Medicine;what do you do when you don’t know what to do? by Avril Danczak, AlisonLea and Geraldine Murphy. ( RCGP books)

Order book from

http://www.rcgp.org.uk/bookshop/professional-topics/being-a-gp/mapping-uncertainty-in-medicine.aspx

The posts on this website will continue to explore uncertainty and the ways we can think about it productively. If you have experienced a “What do you do when you don’t know what to do(WDYDWYDKWTD) moment” please share it with us by posting on this site, using the contact page.