Qualitative research: focus group discussions with patients and doctors after surgery
We will conduct focus groups with patients, carers and clinicians, to generate consensus about, and potentially refine, the emerging findings from project 1.1 and to finalise the shared decision making scenarios developed. We will recruit a up to 90 high-risk patients (up to 9 focus groups) across the study who have undergone or declined surgery in the past 12 months and ensuring a mix of age, gender, social circumstances and surgical outcomes. Where patients with severe complications are unable to participate in focus groups, we will invite them to nominate someone who can represent their views, and if they would like their carer to attend with them then we will invite them to do so. In addition, we will recruit up to 30 doctors (up to 3 focus groups) ensuring a mix of age, gender, clinical experience, role and location.
Part of the focus group work will be to review draft decision making scenarios developed from the findings in Project 1.1. In their respective groups, we will ask patients, carers and clinicans to share their thoughts on the draft scenarios, relate them to their own experiences and use them to reflect on the process of shared decision making more broadly.