Malpractice Prevention through the Sharing of Uncertainty

Uncertainty presents a commonly acknowledged threat to the doctor–patient alliance1; anxious patients seeking doctors also seek the reassurance of medical certainty. Hut anxiety about undiscovered causes and undetermined outcomes sets doctor and patient apart if both react defensively; even worse, anxiety over uncertainty may evoke feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness.Increasingly, patients and families who experience tragic disappointments in their expectations of medicine attempt to assuage their grief, helplessness, and despair by suing — that is, blaming — the physician. In doing so, they often fail to discriminate among errors of negligence, other errors, natural variations, and acts . . .