Uncertainty tolerance among primary care physicians: Relationship to shared decision making-related perceptions, practices, and physician characteristics.
Patient Educ Couns
; 123: 108232, 2024 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38458091
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Understand how physicians' uncertainty tolerance (UT) in clinical care relates to their personal characteristics, perceptions and practices regarding shared decision making (SDM).METHODS:
As part of a trial of SDM training about colorectal cancer screening, primary care physicians (n = 67) completed measures of their uncertainty tolerance in medical practice (Anxiety subscale of the Physician's Reactions to Uncertainty Scale, PRUS-A), and their SDM self-efficacy (confidence in SDM skills). Patients (N = 466) completed measures of SDM (SDM Process scale) after a clinical visit. Bivariate regression analyses and multilevel regression analyses examined relationships.RESULTS:
Higher UT was associated with greater physician age (p = .01) and years in practice (p = 0.015), but not sex or race. Higher UT was associated with greater SDM self-efficacy (p < 0.001), but not patient-reported SDM.CONCLUSION:
Greater age and practice experience predict greater physician UT, suggesting that UT might be improved through training, while UT is associated with greater confidence in SDM, suggesting that improving UT might improve SDM. However, UT was unassociated with patient-reported SDM, raising the need for further studies of these relationships. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Developing and implementing training interventions aimed at increasing physician UT may be a promising way to promote SDM in clinical care.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Physicians, Primary Care
/
Decision Making, Shared
Limits:
Humans
/
Infant
Language:
En
Journal:
Patient Educ Couns
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States