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Table 2 Themes and questions used as guidelines in focus groups

From: Medical educators' experiences on medically unexplained symptoms and intercultural communication—an expert focus group study

1. Experiences with’medically unexplained symptoms’ (MUS)

 What do you mean by the term’medically unexplained symptoms’? In what situations do you use this term?

 What reasons / precedents / background can you identify behind the appearance of MUS in specific cases? Can you recall a concrete example?

 What protocol do you follow in the treatment of MUS? To whom do you refer patients with MUS when a referral is needed? What specialists have to be involved?

 What difficulties do you face when interacting with patients with MUS? What represents the most severe difficulty in those dialogues? Can you recall a concrete example?

2. Communication on MUS in intercultural situations

 What professional encounters / consultations do you consider as being’intercultural’?

 What gives you self-confidence in consultations where intercultural communication is needed? What makes you unsure in those situations?

 Can you recall concrete examples when you interacted with culturally different patients on MUS? What is different in these situations compared to communication on MUS with patients from your culture?

 What is the biggest challenge in communicating with culturally different patients on MUS?

 What are your communication strategies in these situations (interactions with culturally different patients on MUS)? Can you recall an example when you managed the consultation successfully on MUS with culturally different patients?