. 2024 May 21;24:556. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05559-z

Table 2.

Qualitative themes and sub-themes from fellow focus-groups eliciting feedback on fellows’ experiences

Themes	Sub-Themes	Exemplar Quotes
Each curricular pillar was relevant to fellows’ careers and contributed to meaningful professional development	The variety of topics allowed for individualized learning	“[The lectures] were just really applicable and easy to understand and engaging. I’ve referenced a lot of the materials provided to us in practice.” “Just having a different outlook on, access to food, access to transportation, homelessness, all those things that we talked about. I just really learned so much more about, because that was one thing that in school that we didn't really touch on at all.” “It helped for me to have some tools to actually figure out how do I best work with learners. It was definitely helpful.” “I was feeling very lackluster in my teaching skills and I've been taking every single tool to heart and using them on my residents, the medical students, fellows. It's been fantastic.”
The format the fellowship allowed for flexibility and collaborative learning among a group of busy professionals		“We gleaned so much information from each other. That's been one of the things I've enjoyed most about this. It's like the true meaning of the term fellowship. We all are primary care to some degree and we have different practices but we have a lot in common.” “Just actually just getting to see each other and share experiences of difficult patient encounters, that was actually really good for my wellness.” “For me it was helpful to have the modules that I could piece here and there and in-between and then to have the flexibility of the self-study time to move things around.”
The inclusion of community members in fellowship activities allowed for expanded perspectives and personal and professional growth for fellows	The highest-rated activity of the fellowship were the evening gatherings which featured topical experts from the community	“It just opened my eyes a little bit more to some of the challenges and the bureaucracy within food banks. I never would have thought about that before.” “I do like the community aspect; different elements of the community and the value of how that can impact primary care, sometimes in non-clinical ways.” “Just hearing about the lived experiences [of those with addiction] was more helpful to me almost than resources. [I] was better able to understand what led them down that path or the difficulties that they face, how I can just better understand them and how maybe what we're doing is helping them or not helping them or their perception on things. And so that was really impactful for me and helped reorient my beliefs or my thoughts on that.” “This fellowship motivated me to want to do more advocacy”

Themes

Sub-Themes

Exemplar Quotes

Each curricular pillar was relevant to fellows’ careers and contributed to meaningful professional development

The variety of topics allowed for individualized learning

“[The lectures] were just really applicable and easy to understand and engaging. I’ve referenced a lot of the materials provided to us in practice.”

“Just having a different outlook on, access to food, access to transportation, homelessness, all those things that we talked about. I just really learned so much more about, because that was one thing that in school that we didn't really touch on at all.”

“It helped for me to have some tools to actually figure out how do I best work with learners. It was definitely helpful.”

“I was feeling very lackluster in my teaching skills and I've been taking every single tool to heart and using them on my residents, the medical students, fellows. It's been fantastic.”

The format the fellowship allowed for flexibility and collaborative learning among a group of busy professionals

“We gleaned so much information from each other. That's been one of the things I've enjoyed most about this. It's like the true meaning of the term fellowship. We all are primary care to some degree and we have different practices but we have a lot in common.”

“Just actually just getting to see each other and share experiences of difficult patient encounters, that was actually really good for my wellness.”

“For me it was helpful to have the modules that I could piece here and there and in-between and then to have the flexibility of the self-study time to move things around.”

The inclusion of community members in fellowship activities allowed for expanded perspectives and personal and professional growth for fellows

The highest-rated activity of the fellowship were the evening gatherings which featured topical experts from the community

“It just opened my eyes a little bit more to some of the challenges and the bureaucracy within food banks. I never would have thought about that before.”

“I do like the community aspect; different elements of the community and the value of how that can impact primary care, sometimes in non-clinical ways.”

“Just hearing about the lived experiences [of those with addiction] was more helpful to me almost than resources. [I] was better able to understand what led them down that path or the difficulties that they face, how I can just better understand them and how maybe what we're doing is helping them or not helping them or their perception on things. And so that was really impactful for me and helped reorient my beliefs or my thoughts on that.”

“This fellowship motivated me to want to do more advocacy”