Box 2.

Descriptions of goal setting

From the people that I have seen as I say there’s nothing that I have done or the action plans that I’ve done which eh I have said ‘you need to this’ …I’d … felt … that the time spent with them I could then identify things that they know they need to do themselves and then just clarify it for them essentially. Just take … what’s out of half hours discussion and take it down to two or three points that they can just concentrate on themselves … They’ve also got a lot of long-term goals but they appreciate that they can’t be changed straight away. But small steps in the right direction.

(Practice A, Meeting 2, GP Participant 2)

I think that’s is where the extra time comes in that you can listen you are not stressed by going through your head ‘I need to do five issues …’. You can let them address their needs … You can listen connect and then bring (your) agenda in as well because I think at the end of the day I still feel quite …yeah, I am a doctor and I need to make sure that I get something through, which is important and not forgotten.

(Practice A, Meeting 2, GP Participant 1)

We worked out that (although I didn’t kind of plan it this way) eh it worked out over the course of the interviews that one would generally be something that they’ve already started to change themselves, one would be something that, that needs to eh that they know they need to change themselves, or have expressed desire to change during the course of the interview. And one was something that I kind of picked up on that might be beneficial for them which may both be such eh a success given that it’s a kind of an imposed goal if you like rather than something that they’ve picked up themselves. That’s kind of the way it turned out for me but without any particular eh eh notion of doing it that way in the first place.

(Practice A, Meeting 3, GP Participant 2)