First year junior doctors and medical uncertainty - a qualitative study

Few studies have investigated how doctors in Norway deal with medical uncertainty. The purpose of the study was to explore how first year junior doctors perceive and manage uncertainty in clinical practice.

Ten first year junior doctors at two hospitals in Norway were recruited for interviews following response pattern analysis from a mapping questionnaire. The interviews were analysed using systematic text condensation.

The analysis revealed three main themes in the interviews: dealing with medical uncertainty, personal response to medical uncertainty, and working environment, feedback and preparation. Within all three thematic areas, the informants used the words 'certain/uncertain' and 'secure/insecure' interchangeably.

The first year junior doctors struggled with the inherent uncertainty of medicine and felt a marked sense of insecurity, particularly at the start of their training period. How the doctors were welcomed in the workplace and the feedback they were given were important factors. Their undergraduate medical education had not sufficiently prepared the first year junior doctors for how to deal with medical uncertainty in clinical practice.