Embracing uncertainty within medical education

This chapter draws upon empirical work in a UK medical school exploring howundergraduate medical students develop their professional identity within conditions ofuncertainty. The chapter first outlines seminal empirical explorations of uncertaintywithin existing medical education literature and then describes the research study, its useof narrative methodology and key findings. The chapter finally reflects upon how thisresearch might be used by the reader to inform and shape future medical educationendeavours, drawing upon useful educational theoretical frameworks. In particular, thischapter interrogates medical students' experiences of uncertainty within decision-makingduring 4th year undergraduate placements in general practice and invites the reader toconsider the competing discourses within medical education and struggles of identitywhich students experience within their training. The analysis uses a social constructivistunderstanding of identity as an interactional relationship between self and environment(Bourdieu, 1993). Learning, then, 'to be professional', becomes a negotiation ofcompromise, dominance and suppression, as students seek to perform a coherent selfwhich fits with their desire to be a legitimate member of the medical profession. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.