Table 1.

Concepts and excerpts related to near-peer teaching theme

Concept	Representative quotes	Perceived effect on learning
Comfort/non-judgemental	‘Sometimes, depending on the attending, I feel a bit more … nervous like I'm being judged or evaluated. With the senior fellow I felt very comfortable.’ (Junior 7) ‘(I tried to be) more of a peer coach rather than an attending. Hopefully we're more approachable and they can feel more comfortable talking with us and not necessarily feel like it’s punitive when we're giving them constructive tips. … I remember it could be demoralizing when you're performing poorly and your boss … is telling you everything you're doing wrong…’ (Senior 6) ‘I think people tend to be more colloquial.’ (Attending 4)	Affordance
Patience	‘He was just more patient with me than … attendings have been… Giving me time to try to figure it out myself and then stepping in when he could see that I was struggling.’ (Junior 4) ‘…Being in the first-year’s shoes, it’s … annoying when the scope gets taken from you quickly. So, I tried to give him space to try.’ (Senior 1)	Affordance
Relatable instruction	‘I think it’s … helpful to be doing it with someone who just went through training and is closer to being a novice like myself. Because I think maybe when you're an attending, it’s just so second nature to you that you … forget what you're doing or how to explain it.’ (Junior 4) ‘The senior fellows are closer to learning themselves. They tend to be able to break things down a bit easier. I think senior fellows have an opportunity to teach in a way that’s different than an attending might, and that might resonate better with a junior fellow.’ (Attending 4)	Affordance
Less experienced teacher	‘It’s the end of first year, so … they know a lot of the basics which is the stuff that I feel most comfortable teaching. … I feel like I can only teach to a certain level.’ (Senior 1) ‘An additional year of experience would be helpful.’ (Senior 3) ‘I don't think this arrangement is of great value to the first-year fellow. … The opportunity to do it with the master endoscopist giving all the direction, probably outweighs the benefit of being closer to the training of a first-year fellow.’ (Attending 10)	Barrier