Table 5 Examples of patient-clinician concordance

Scale 1. Feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers

P103 (Agree) I've got diabetes so I go to the diabetes referral centre at the hospital and my GP and all that. And the woman from HARP so there's, like, a lot of supportive people.

C103 (Agree) He knows where to go to get the support he needs.

Scale 2. Having sufficient information to manage my health

P108 (Strongly Agree) Yes, I strongly agree because of my background [nursing]…and I'm not afraid to ask providers 'what's this?' and 'how does that work?' and 'why isn't that done?' and what have you. That's the reason I strongly agree with that. I can do that.

C108 (Strongly Agree) Yes…because of her professional background. She has a good understanding of the medical system and seeks information from various sources.

Scale 3. Actively managing my health

P105 (Disagree) I don’t do everything that I should… I still smoke and still have a couple of beers. That doesn't help.

C105 (Disagree) …from what I've witnessed he drinks beer and smokes cigarettes and sits on his couch for 8 h a day or on the Internet and literally that's all I've seen him do.

Scale 4. Social support for health

P113 (Agree) I can have either my father…or [HARP clinician] will come… It's pretty easy…The only reason I wouldn't have gone 'strongly agree' is sometimes they're busy or other people are busy and they can't always be there when I'm really sick quite instantly with something.

C113 (Agree) Yes. Me and his father.

Scale 5. Appraisal of health information

P115 (Strongly Disagree) I don't look at health information so I can't really compare if I don't have it.

C115 (Disagree) She’ll be given a piece of information by one of the other residents and she won’t necessarily seek out another option or opinion from someone else to compare with what she has been told by a resident.

Scale 6. Ability to actively engage with healthcare providers

P114 (Quite Difficult) It’s always difficult because like I said they have quite a few dozen other people that they care for and they only have a short time to assess or discuss things with me.

C114 (Quite Difficult) There are times when he comes back and says 'you know, I wasn’t able to talk about that'. Sometimes the HCP also cuts him short because, you know, they've got a time limit. So it's being able to discuss all those issues that he might have had. We've tried to do lists and things for him to take a list along of the issues to try to keep him on track. But yeah, that's a struggle for him.

Scale 7. Navigating the healthcare system

P122 (Very Easy) The information I get from Barwon Health and the GP, it seems to be all provided for me.

C122 (Quite Easy) Because he gets guidance it is quite easy. Guidance from his health professionals, family and peers.

Scale 8. Ability to find good health information

P111 (Cannot Do) Because I don’t leave my unit and I don’t have access to a computer.

C111 (Quite Difficult) Yeah, and maybe that should really be VD by herself, and that means her accessing it herself, that would be very difficult I think.

Scale 9. Understand health information well enough to know what to do

P104 (Cannot Do) I give my best. Sometimes it's difficult…You get these big words and think 'what are they talking about?'

C104 (Very Difficult) He would not be a candidate for any more information than maybe grade 5…very basic. And that goes for oral information and written information. It has to be broken down into very basic little chunks.