Table 3.

Experiences of healthcare

Subthemes	Quotes
(1) Preparing for discharge	‘I was hospitalised for almost 14 days and then they said, “you can go home now”. I could barely walk. My bed (at home) was upstairs, so some arrangements had to be made to put my bed back in order(…). It takes quite a lot of effort to arrange all those things. So, yes, you can go home, but you are thrown into the deep end, and you have to figure it all out by yourself’. (1.3, male, 41 years old, mono)
(2) Attention for work-related issues	‘I don’t think the physician asked me: “do you work, or what do you actually do?” I did bring it up myself, because at that time, I really wanted to work’. (3.5, female, 58 years old, mono) ‘The rehabilitation has been completed, but there have been no changes yet. What will happen when I go back to work? Yes, I could still do with some support for that’. (6.6, female, 23 years old, TBI)
(3) Working through problems together	‘Well, at first, I was feeling quite insecure, because one of my kidneys did not work well (because of the trauma), and he (the occupational physician) simply discussed the options with me. For example, how I could recognise when I am getting dizzy and was going too far(…). By doing so, he gives you some assurance and tools to organise your life. Those are some of the things you can discuss together (with your physician)(…). This provides you with support to resume your life and getting back to doing the right things’. (5.5, male, 53 years old, poly)
(4) Providing an estimated timeframe	‘Back to managing expectations, she (the physician) did not set out any false expectations after surgery, yet she said: ”well, if all goes really well, then you can do this and that at this point, then you can think this long until all functions should be back to normal, or this and that could happen instead”. This gives me something to work with, a bandwidth, that allows me to think ‘okay, now I have something to work towards’. (3.2, male, 57 years old, mono)

Quote numbering, the first number indicates the focus group number, and the second number the participant number of the specific focus group.

TBI, traumatic brain injury.