Clinical decision-making sits at the quiet centre of medical practice — the space where evidence, experience, uncertainty, and human judgement meet. This chapter explores how clinicians think: how diagnoses are formed, why errors occur, and how cognitive biases subtly shape our conclusions long before we realise it.

In this deep dive, we move beyond algorithms and checklists to examine the real terrain of clinical reasoning. You’ll hear how pattern recognition, probabilistic thinking, and reflective practice interact at the bedside, and why good decisions are often less about certainty than about disciplined humility.

This chapter invites you to slow down and notice how you think — not just what you decide. It offers a language for diagnostic doubt, a framework for shared decision-making, and a reminder that good medicine is as much about sense-making as it is about answers.

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