Learning Clinical Reasoning: The Experience of Postgraduate Psychiatry Trainee Doctors in Qatar

Figures & data

Table 1. Theoretical thematic analysis steps.

Steps	Procedure
Step 1 Familiarizing self with data	The interviews were conducted, the audio recordings were transcribed, and the transcripts were checked against the recordings. The compiled transcripts were read to get a cohesive understanding of the data, and initial notes and ideas were written. Each participant received a copy of their interview transcripts with the initial ideas written by the researcher to check the mutual understanding of the ideas.
Step 2 Generating initial codes	Theoretical thematic analysis was used. Significant texts in data were highlighted after rounds of data reading. Extracted ideas were compared. Similar ideas were given initial codes. The coding process was influenced by the previous knowledge acquired from the prior review of the literature. The initial codes were descriptive. Abstract-level codes were generated next by iterative analysis of existing codes. Coding was conducted simultaneously with the interviews. Further participant recruitment was directly indicated by the previous codes generated. Recruitment stopped when no new codes were found (saturation point).
Step 3 Identifying and refining themes	Similar codes were tabled to identify patterns related to the theoretical framework. Repeated patterns were identified as themes, and a thematic map was generated to aid the analysis process. The themes were reviewed, refined, and grouped into subthemes with broader overarching main themes.

Table 2. Examples of codes generated during thematic analysis.

Examples of scripts	Examples of codes	Themes
“We tend to rely more on the consultant input in those cases.”	Clinical leadership/dominance	Hierarchy
“It was the start of the fellowship and was early on, and you are not quite sure where you fall within the team you have this feeling that you need to do something more, but all the other team members think differently so you would not want to say something different.” “It also depends on the consultant who is running the MDT sometimes the consultant will be running the show and only ask the nurse like for five words of opinion and won’t ask the rest of the members of the team so it varies.”	Roles in the team
“you finish the residency and you are a fellow and you are expected to act on another level a senior level without it actually being graded.”	Poor exposure/ lack of independence
“at times am seeking similar experiences and at times am just venting.”	views on peer-supported learning
“yes it was alarming I thought there was partial seizure that I missed.”	Anxiety about performance Knowledge gap	Emotions
“I tried to make her as comfortable as possible so she opened up about her suicidal and infanticidal ideas.”	Confidence from actions
“ok, because it was an acute situation at night at that time, the decision had to be made.”	Limited resources Decision urgency	The characteristics of the learning environment

Figure 1. The themes and subthemes of qualitative data results.