Table 9 Themes and subthemes: patient perspective

Attributes and Attitudes

● Appreciation

Appreciation of staff attributes;

“I appreciate the whole team… people try… they can’t do enough for you” P.23

● Staff attitudes

attitudes of staff towards patient

“It was just the way they went about the whole thing, telling me ‘sorry, you’re dying’

…and ‘we’ll refer you to palliative care….

you’re not priority, we will never operate on you’…

I felt like a second class citizen” P. 11

Know me as a person

● Knowledge of person

Knowledge of the patient as an individual person,

“I was’nae treated as a person, I was treated as somebody that was in a bed” P.11

● Emotional awareness

including their life achievements; knowledge of

“ (Staff need to know) that

● Personal achievements

people who can act in an advocacy role on patient’s

I am terrified of dying. I have a fear of death being painful, a bad experience” P. 29

● Advocacy

behalf, or those people patient wants to protect. Use of the PDQ in achieving this

“ (I was) a chartered mechanical engineer, with a first class honours degree” P. 2

“I must get (family member) sorted out. They can throw me in the back green, but I must get (family member) sorted out” P. 15

Time and place

● Staff time

Staff time and organisational structure: micro and macro structures. Adherence to structural regimes

“..Lack of communication is a big thing for me…you know they, they wander about there and nobody comes across and speaks to you” P. 18

● Adherence

“Staff speak about ward being short staffed, how busy they are etc.…

they don’t really speak to me about anything else” P. 14

“I struggle with the time and speed things happen in hospital, like the routine in the morning” P.16