Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Uncertainty shapes many decisions made by physicians everyday. To describe socio-demographic and professional characteristics of reactions to uncertainty among physicians from all specialties, including physicians in training. The questionnaire also included items about professional characteristics and work-related satisfaction scales. After the first mailing and two reminders, 1, physicians responded to the survey.
In univariate analysis, women, junior physicians, surgical specialists, generalist physicians, and physicians with lower workloads had higher scores in both scales. In multivariate models, sex, medical specialty, and workload remained significantly associated with both scales, whereas clinical experience remained associated only with concern about bad outcomes.
Higher levels of anxiety due to uncertainty were associated with lower scores of work-related satisfaction, while higher levels of concern about bad outcomes were associated with lower satisfaction scores for patient care, personal rewards, professional relations, and general satisfaction, but not for work-related burden or satisfaction with income-prestige.
The negative effect of anxiety due to uncertainty on work-related satisfaction was more important for physicians in training.
Physicians in training experienced the greatest impact of anxiety due to uncertainty on their work-related satisfaction. Incorporating strategies to deal with uncertainty into residency training may be useful. Uncertainty shapes many decisions made by clinicians everyday and is so ubiquitous that physicians must learn to tolerate ambiguity if they are to provide quality care to patients who suffer from complex conditions.
