About the editors

Editors

Associate Professor Michelle D. Lazarus PhD SFHEA is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Human Anatomy Education and the Deputy Director for the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education at Monash University. In the field of medical education for over a decade, she has led a research program which explores how we can impact learners’ uncertainty tolerance through curriculum design. She has delivered over a dozen related workshops to educators across the globe, and has developed a series of educational artefacts to support learner uncertainty tolerance development, including a pamphlet (PDF, 658 KB) and webinar, for Education Services Australia for teachers interested in integrating uncertainty tolerance teaching practices in their classrooms. This textbook expands on these initiatives, providing a more holistic and complete source of uncertainty tolerance theory and practice – focusing specifically on health professions educators. Michelle is an award winning educator and author. Notably, she was awarded the Australian Award for University Teaching Excellence in 2021. She is the author of the “The Uncertainty Effect: How to Survive and Thrive through the Unexpected”. Her entire career is a journey into uncertainty.

Michelle hopes this book inspires educators to incorporate uncertainty tolerance teaching practices into their educational portfolio.

For more about Associate Professor Lazarus see:

Monash Profile: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/michelle-lazarus

Dr Georgina C. Stephens MBBS(Hons) PhD FHEA

is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Human Anatomy Education at Monash University. A medical practitioner by background, she has first hand experience of what it means to manage uncertainty when caring for people seeking healthcare. Georgina transitioned to a full time academic career in 2017, focussed on clinical anatomy education and health professions education research. During her doctoral studies, she explored how medical students experience uncertainty, and examined the evidence for widely used scales intended to measure the construct of uncertainty tolerance. Her doctoral research led to five peer reviewed publications on uncertainty tolerance, all published in leading health professions education journals, and several winning awards for publication excellence. Georgina is an award winning educator, including being awarded the Dean’s Award for Innovation in Education in 2023.

Georgina hopes this book will motivate educators to consider how their teaching practices can support learners to understand that uncertainty is the reality of healthcare professionals, but they can learn to manage the uncertainties they will face.

For more about Dr Stephens see:

Monash Profile: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/georgina-stephens