Table 2.

Categories, attributes and example behaviours

Categories	Subcategories (indicators)	Example behaviours
Initiating the partnership	Welcoming, interested and courteous reception	Introduces oneself, smiles, eye contact, head nodding, hand gestures, open body posture
	Agreeing on structure and aims of the conversation	Discusses an agenda for the meeting
	Eliciting patients’ wishes for involving significant others	Asks the patient if he/she wants to involve someone else
Working the partnership	Attentive, empathic and encouraging manner	Gives short summaries of patient’s narratives, uses open-ended questions
	Promoting mutual understanding	Uses a common language
	Promoting patient engagement	Shares communication time
	Having an encouraging and friendly body language	Does not have arms crossed
Safeguarding the partnership	Collaboration and transparency in documentation	Cocreates and invites the patient to review or write the health plan him/herself
	Verifying that patient’s and professional’s views, goals and wants are correctly documented	Asks for final approval