Table 3.

Synthesis of qualitative results of therapeutic patient education (TPE) programmes

Themes/subthemes	Illustrative quotes
Why?
To take care of a patient not just a disease	‘We take the person as a whole, with his/her environment, disease (s), desires, needs, tastes, and then we adapt the TPE’ (p. 23).
To adapt to personal functioning	‘With the patient profile it's difficult and it's up to me to adapt, but this very rigorous patient, it's absolutely not possible for me to tell him you can move forward or backward 24 hours because he won't be well’ (p. 20).
To adapt to cognitive and language abilities	‘We use a vocabulary that is not the same for everyone and approach things in different ways’ (p. 16).
How? Take time	‘To get there, the key is to take time’ (p. 20).
Organization of the programme
Conduct an initial assessment	‘Initial assessment allows us to find the most appropriate program to their needs. If you have a person who is physically hyperactive, it's not the most urgent to make him meet the group workshops with the physiotherapist’ (p. 22).
Systematically add an individual session	‘We tell them: you measure your breath for a month, you send us the results and then we meet again for a last session, for crisis management’ (p. 14).
Add alternative or complementary individual sessions if needed	‘Because he has questions that are too personal and it doesn't concern the theme of the day's workshops… we let the group go and then we resume in a somewhat informal way for some questions’ (p. 9).
Involve an HCP not systematically solicited if needed
Content of the programme
Define objectives along the sessions' progression	‘Patients always leave [the session] with an objective’ (p. 12).
Consider the patient's lifestyle	‘If the person gets up at 9 am, they will not be asked to measure their blood sugar at 7 am’ (p. 26).
Adapt content and activities	‘This involves adapting the content to age and age‐related concerns’ (p. 12).
Take into account pedagogical assessment	‘Not to continue the sessions if there are things that have not been understood, to be able to readjust before continuing the session’ (p. 14).
Individualized follow‐up between sessions	‘For the most vulnerable people, I also do telephone follow‐up’ (p. 4).
Relationship with the patient
Allow for a deeper relationship than in routine practice	‘I'm not here as a care prescriber (…) saying you have to, you have to, you have to’ (p. 28).
Built over time	It is important that patients ‘always deal with the same professional’ (p. 5).
Communication style with patients
Avoid asymmetric positions	‘We are no more with the image of the nurse who is there for her knowledge, who bombard patients with things to do’ (p. 9).
Concentrate on patients' interests	‘We have to focus communication on the patients' interests and not unpack everything we know’ (p. 4).
How to facilitate group sessions
Know the participants beforehand	‘As I know them well, when I animate I know very well who I have to look at, who I have to tell, why I am going to ask such a patient to give an example or how he feels’ (p. 4).
Facilitate sessions in pairs	‘In pairs, better listening to the group where sometimes someone will take the floor, the floor will be cut. We have trouble hearing the two people, and it is true that the second person can therefore reformulate what has been said next door to take up etc. Uh, all alone, I think there might be more forgotten remarks (…) that you don't necessarily hear alone when you are in a conversation’ (p. 2).
Patient actor of the individualization process	The patient can choose to address ‘questions or problems that have not been perceived’ (p. 17).