Table 2 Interview guiding questions

1. In terms of your own illness experience, what does compassion mean to you? Can you give me an example of when you experienced care that was compassionate?

2. Having seen and being provided with an overview of the compassion model, in general how do you feel it relates to personal understanding and illness experience? [Do you feel anything is missing? Do you feel anything needs to be removed?]

3. Considering your ethnic background, is there anything you would consider changing related to the compassion model?

4. What do you consider the key qualities of a compassionate health care professional?

5. How can you tell if a healthcare provider genuinely wants to understand you as a person? [How would you know a healthcare provider is seeking to understand you?; What does a healthcare provider do to make you feel understood as a person?]

6. When a healthcare provider is interacting with you how do you know that they are providing compassionate care?

7. Thinking about the first time that you met a healthcare provider, what is it about them that tells you they are compassionate? [How can you tell you are receiving compassion based on your healthcare providers’ initial response to you?]

8. What are the things that a healthcare provider does [their actions] that make you feel you are receiving compassionate care?

9. Is there anything that we have not talked about today, that we have missed or you were hoping to talk about today?