Table 4 Illustrative quotes of contextual factors identified

Timing of Intervention

‘I suppose in first year if you'd asked me to do something like that, I'd have been terrified. I'd have been so stressed it beforehand’.

‘It was really early in our module. So, I kind of didn't expect to know anything, which then probably made the communication the most important’

Setting of Intervention

‘It was interesting though that we were assigned to those pairs, I thought, rather than people picking’

‘The way the chairs were set up as well, I think it facilitated conversation…you weren't over the other side of the room and you weren't having to try and move closer.’

Debrief

‘everyone was positive about it, which was nice….any comments that were thrown out by the class were nice and positive…and then you kind of pick apart a bit more what could have been done different[ly]’

‘it's a safety thing to have the SP because at least if you recommend something that is inappropriate, or possibly medically unsafe, then there's not going to be real life consequences I mean, and you can learn from the mistake’

Individual

‘You're more exposed to patients when you work in pharmacy…. Especially if you're OTC, like you're talking to patients all the time’

‘I am shy, I don't want people to see my videos…so kind of like embarrassed’

‘English is not my first language. So, kind of in my mind I have to arrange the sentence to say to the patient, but as years pass, I'm being more confident of communicating with patients’