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The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners logoLink to The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
. 1978 Jun;28(191):343–346.

Tolerating uncertainty in family medicine

George H Thomson
PMCID: PMC2158856  PMID: 702447

Abstract

In family practice, early undifferentiated signs and symptoms dominate many consultations. A physician must learn to tolerate uncertainty in addition to managing well-defined pathological processes. A series of steps are presented on how to approach the uncertain. I hope these will stimulate further comment and help to develop a body of organized and testable knowledge on the skills of managing the uncertain problems in family practice.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. McWhinney I. R. Beyond diagnosis: an approach to the integration of behavioral science and clinical medicine. N Engl J Med. 1972 Aug 24;287(8):384–387. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197208242870805. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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