Table 6 Data display of verbatim statements in theme and sub-themes ‘Challenges to learners’

Supervisor time divided

Sometimes, if there weren’t enough supervisors and because the intern also had to be supervised so they were basically seeing a patient and then the GP had to go in afterwards and see the patient as well; so in that sense sometimes it could be a bit busy especially if our supervisor’s supervising us, both myself and the intern. So a bit of time is wasted. (Female medical student#2 at P1)

There’s probably about an hour or so of interpersonal interaction added on. We must have something like six or seven learners in the building over the course of a week, and if each one of them is having a bad week, that adds up to a significant amount of time. (Male supervisor#1 at P1)

Feeling anxious

But for the junior doctor it is quite nerve wracking having someone watching you, It is always nerve wracking having the medical student watching. (Female intern#1 at P2)

Competition for access to patients

All this talk about getting more junior doctors out in to clinics to learn more; they’re not going to learn anything if you don’t have the patients to back them up. (Female intern#1 at P3)

Patient reluctance

I’ve received annoyances from patients was patients that said ‘oh I’m seeing you today, I was hoping to see (the senior doctor). (Female intern#1 at P1)

Although the patients tended not to want to see the Interns because they hadn’t had any relationship building. (Male supervisor#1 at P2)

I don’t see a negative there but my husband doesn’t like it; he wants to see the same doctors, not the learners (Female patient#1 at P1)