Table 1 Guiding Questions Utilized in Focus Group and Semi-Structured Interviews that Pertain to Compassion Training

Stage 1 Focus Group Guiding Questions

1 Based on your professional and personal experience, what does compassion mean to you?

2 Can you give me an example of when you felt you provided or witnessed care that was compassionate? [What do you feel were the key aspects of these interactions?]

3 What do you feel are the major influencers of compassion in your practice?

4 What do you feel inhibits your ability to provide compassion?

5 Do you think patients and/or family members influence the provision of compassion? [How or how not?], [If yes, what characteristics of patients and/or families, do you feel facilitate or inhibit compassion?]

6 What advice would you give other healthcare providers on providing compassion?

7 Do you think we can train people to be compassionate? [If so, how]?

8 Based on your experience what role, if any, do you feel compassion has in alleviating end of life distress? [What happens when compassion is lacking?]

9 What impact does providing compassion have on your personally and professionally?

10 Is there anything related to compassion that we have not talked about today that you think is important or were hoping to talk about?

Stage 2 Interview Guiding Questions

1 You have been identified by your peers as possessing great skill in providing compassion. What do you feel might be some of the reasons for this recognition? [Why do you think others identify you as a compassionate healthcare provider]?

2 In your own terms, how would you define compassion? [What does compassion mean to you?]

3 How did you become a compassionate caregiver? [What beliefs, situations, individuals and/or life experiences in your life and practice do you feel have informed your understanding and provision of compassion? Have you always been that way? [Were you always like that? How did you learn it? Can it be learned?]

4 If you reflect back on your current position, can you walk me through the best example of when you provided compassion? Please guide me through the process of this encounter in a sequential fashion, highlighting the key components of this interaction from the initial approach to the consequences of this interaction?]

5 Based on your professional and personal experiences, what shapes your compassion?

6 If you were responsible for training students in compassion, how would you go about it? [What would you teach them?]

7 Is there anything that gets in the way of your ability to provide compassion?

8 How do patients and/or families influence your ability to provide compassion? [What characteristics of patients and/or families, do you feel facilitate or inhibit compassion?]

9 A number of participants have identified the healthcare system as being a significant factor in delivering compassion? From your perspective, how does/can the healthcare system facilitate or inhibit compassion?

10 In light of the things you’ve just identified as facilitators and barriers, what suggestions would you have for enhancing compassion at a systems level? [Where and what would you focus your efforts on in order to enhance compassion at a systems level]?

11 From what you’ve told me so far, it sounds like compassion is important. So what happens [to patients, families or HCPs] when compassion is lacking?

12 What impact does providing compassion have on you personally and professionally?

13 Our focus group participants, previous studies and review of the literature have reported how critical and fundamental compassion is to providing quality patient care, but we also know that compassion varies. So given all that we know about the importance of compassion, why aren’t healthcare providers more compassionate?

14 Before we end, given all we’ve talked about, I just want to revisit one of the first questions I asked, which is how do you personally define compassion? [In light of our discussion, what does compassion mean to you?]

15 Is there anything related to compassion that we have not talked about today that you think is important or were hoping to talk about?

Stage 3 Focus Group Questions

1 Does the healthcare provider model of compassion make sense to you? [Does it resonate with you]? [Why or Why not]?

2 Do you feel there is anything missing from the model?

3 How do you feel this model might be relevant to you and your work?

4 How do you suggest the model might be integrated into healthcare practice and education?

5 Is there anything related to the model that we have not talked about today that you think is important or were hoping to talk about