. 2021 Oct 4;32(2):306–318. doi: 10.1007/s10926-021-10007-6

Table 3.

The physiotherapists experiences from delivering the SVAI

Facilitators/positive experiences	Barriers/challenges
• The phone-conversations went well and it was easy to build rapport with most participants over the phone (5, 6, 20) • The help, advice and support provided in the SVAI appeared to be appreciated by the participants (4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 20) • The physiotherapists perceived it as an advantage that they were independent from the NAV (7, 19) • Having been training as physiotherapists was an asset when giving the participants advice and reassurance about musculoskeletal symptoms (19) • The questions in the conversation guide gave the participants the opportunity to describe many aspects of their situation (6) • The support, advice and information provided during the mentoring sessions was helpful (3, 5, 9, 10) • A shared digital forum (facebook group) made it easy for the physiotherapists to cooperate and share tips between mentoring (7) • The physiotherapists appreciated receiving feedback on the sessions they recorded and learnt from listening to their own recordings of sessions with participants (13, 14)	• Slow recruitment of participants at some points in the study (1, 3, 11, 13, 14, 15) • Challenges in becoming familiar with the conversation guide because it included several overlapping questions (1, 6) • It was difficult to build rapport over the phone with people who were not motivated to RTW and with participants who did not have Norwegian as their first language (3, 11, 12) • There were some problems getting hold of participants (12) • The lack of meeting locations and long distances that participants would have had to travel to meeting locations was a barrier to arrange face-to-face meetings (1, 16) • Participants did not want workplace meetings or did not want the physiotherapists to attend workplace meetings (10, 12, 16, 20) • The physiotherapists did not feel comfortable contacting the participants employers because they did not feel they knew their situation well enough to discuss the work related issues with employers (19, 20) • The limit on the numbers of phone calls allowed made it difficult to help some participants in the low/medium risk group (3, 6, 16, 19) • It was challenging to understand what RTW support the NAV might have been able to provide and often the participants did not fit the criteria for the NAV’s schemes (9, 10, 11, 18) • It was hard to determine what health care to recommend to participants (2, 3, 13, 20) • It was difficult to encourage RTW or increased activity when the participant had received advice from other health care professionals to be careful/stay on sick leave (7, 12, 15, 20) • The physiotherapists did not feel comfortable questioning the treatment provided by other health care professionals (6, 10) • It was not possible to send information to participants by email or text message due to The General Data Protection Regulation (6, 10) • There were several barriers related to the Covid19 pandemic: less access to health care, many workplaces were closed, jobs were at risk and participants in the risk groups for getting seriously ill from Covid19 were afraid to get infected if they RTW (12, 13, 14, 15) • In a few cases the physiotherapists felt the participants were in the wrong risk group (2, 17, 20)

Facilitators/positive experiences

Barriers/challenges

• The phone-conversations went well and it was easy to build rapport with most participants over the phone (5, 6, 20)

• The help, advice and support provided in the SVAI appeared to be appreciated by the participants (4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 20)

• The physiotherapists perceived it as an advantage that they were independent from the NAV (7, 19)

• Having been training as physiotherapists was an asset when giving the participants advice and reassurance about musculoskeletal symptoms (19)

• The questions in the conversation guide gave the participants the opportunity to describe many aspects of their situation (6)

• The support, advice and information provided during the mentoring sessions was helpful (3, 5, 9, 10)

• A shared digital forum (facebook group) made it easy for the physiotherapists to cooperate and share tips between mentoring (7)

• The physiotherapists appreciated receiving feedback on the sessions they recorded and learnt from listening to their own recordings of sessions with participants (13, 14)

• Slow recruitment of participants at some points in the study (1, 3, 11, 13, 14, 15)

• Challenges in becoming familiar with the conversation guide because it included several overlapping questions (1, 6)

• It was difficult to build rapport over the phone with people who were not motivated to RTW and with participants who did not have Norwegian as their first language (3, 11, 12)

• There were some problems getting hold of participants (12)

• The lack of meeting locations and long distances that participants would have had to travel to meeting locations was a barrier to arrange face-to-face meetings (1, 16)

• Participants did not want workplace meetings or did not want the physiotherapists to attend workplace meetings (10, 12, 16, 20)

• The physiotherapists did not feel comfortable contacting the participants employers because they did not feel they knew their situation well enough to discuss the work related issues with employers (19, 20)

• The limit on the numbers of phone calls allowed made it difficult to help some participants in the low/medium risk group (3, 6, 16, 19)

• It was challenging to understand what RTW support the NAV might have been able to provide and often the participants did not fit the criteria for the NAV’s schemes (9, 10, 11, 18)

• It was hard to determine what health care to recommend to participants (2, 3, 13, 20)

• It was difficult to encourage RTW or increased activity when the participant had received advice from other health care professionals to be careful/stay on sick leave (7, 12, 15, 20)

• The physiotherapists did not feel comfortable questioning the treatment provided by other health care professionals (6, 10)

• It was not possible to send information to participants by email or text message due to The General Data Protection Regulation (6, 10)

• There were several barriers related to the Covid19 pandemic: less access to health care, many workplaces were closed, jobs were at risk and participants in the risk groups for getting seriously ill from Covid19 were afraid to get infected if they RTW (12, 13, 14, 15)

• In a few cases the physiotherapists felt the participants were in the wrong risk group (2, 17, 20)

NAV = Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, RTW = return to work

The data presented in the table are from the meeting minutes. The numbers refer to the meetings were the topic was discussed. The meetings are numbered in chronological order (1 = first meeting etc.)