Table 1.

Patient interview guide

(1) What do you think of as goals for your life? (goals = expectations, desired outcomes, motivations, or what would you like to achieve …)    (a) What is the relationship between life goals and your goals for your health or health care?    (b) Do you ever relate your goals for health and health care to what you want to have happen when you visit the doctor or nurse?

(2) Thinking about the goals you have for your health care, how did you decide on these goals? What or who influenced your choices?

(3) How do you talk about goals with doctors? With nurses?    (a) How might you like to talk about goals?    (b) What would you say?    (c) What would you like the doctor to say or ask?

(4) How well do you think you and your clinicians agree on what your health care goals are?    (a) What works well for you when talking to your clinicians about your health care goals?    (b) What does not work well?    (c) How do you wish you and your clinicians would talk about health goals?

(5) Our objective was to understand how patients think about health care goals. Is there anything else I should have asked you to help us better understand this issue?