Cognitive elements in clinical decision-making: toward a cognitive model for medical education and understanding clinical reasoning.

Physician cognition, metacognition and affect may have an impact upon the quality of clinical reasoning. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between measures of physician metacognition and affect and patient outcomes in obstetric practice. Reflective coping (RC), proactive coping, need for cognition (NFC), tolerance for ambiguity, state-trait anxiety and metacognitive awareness were assessed for obstetricians (n = 12) who provided intra-partum care to 4,149 women.