Twelve tips to train medical students to manage their uncertainty and to provide reassurance to patients and their caregivers

Background: Uncertainty is pervasive in clinical medicine and provides a major hurdle for decision-making. Our previous work has demonstrated the importance of providing parents of paediatric patients reassurance in the medical team’s plan of action, what we have termed “comfort with doctors’ reassurance.”

Aims: We provide several practical and implementable tips to medical students in how they can learn to deal with their own uncertainty, recognize the subtle complexities involved and acknowledge the emotional stress that can accompany this process, develop a healthy long-term relationship with uncertainty, and ultimately embrace its potential in providing holistic care to their patients and their caregivers.

Results: Twelve tips and actions in four main domains are recommended: (A) Understanding and Integrating Uncertainty into Medical Education, (B) Building Resilience and Empathy Through Self-Regulation and Reflection, (C) Enhancing Communication and Relationship-Building Skills, and (D) Clinical Skills for Reassurance and Decision-Making.

Conclusions: Even though uncertainty in medical decision-making is pervasive and challenging for the medical trainee, there are several concrete strategies that can build comfort with uncertainty in trainees and reinforce the potential positive attributes of uncertainty in the holistic care of patients. Empathy and expressing compassion remain key skills in bridging caregiver discomfort with uncertainty and comfort with doctors’ reassurance.