Table 1 Questioning guideline (main questions for reported analysis)

What motivated you at first to engage in palliative medicine?

What facilitates or hampers successful palliative care from your point of view?

Thinking of your last palliative care patient:

 When did the family caregivers (FCs) get involved?

 What was triggering the approach to the FCs?

Who initiates the contact between practice and FCs?

 In which situations do you contact FCs directly?

 What role does the staff actually play regarding the contact to the FCs?

How do you know if FCs are burdened?

What do you as a practice team do to support FCs?

 What offers of assistance do you give?

  How do FCs react to offers of assistance?

  Can you remember a situation where FCs were especially reluctant or demanding? How did you react?

 Do you talk about the possibility to admit the patient to a hospital? In which situations?

What has to change to enable your practice to better support FCs?

What kind of support would you like to have?