Table 2 Themes emerging from interviews with research team

Supportive relationships

KU: “I think what that has done is that has allowed us to be a little more candid with each other and, and have a level of honesty... I could pick up the phone and say I don’t quite understand this, walk me through it and feel completely comfortable… and the trust that, that we had built based on previous working relationships.”

KU: “… if we did bring something up or we did, you know, kind of ask a lot of questions that you were willing to, you were willing to kind of go there.”

Competing priorities

Researcher: “I think [delayed response from KU] shows that you know, their priorities were very, very different from ours.”

KU: “…the reality of the pressures that you have here [in schools]… you know it wasn’t about throwing up road blocks although it probably felt that way…”

KU: “…we just weren’t able to really connect and get things finalized quickly, so whether it’s around the report and just kind of miscommunication around what we wanted in the report and what the report looks like…”

Researcher: “…if we want to do this right then we need so many things, resources, you know, buy in, all those things… we need to be absolutely crystal clear what we’re doing in this, what the value is for everybody.”

Role clarity

KU: “… that was helpful… getting that constant kind, update of where things are going and what’s happening now.”

KU: “I feel a little bit of guilt having been this kind of side line support area in some ways… I don’t know I just kind of I had a hard time during the entire process to keep in the loop.”

KU: “… [it would help to have] an understanding of okay what are your time frames, what are your parameters as a researcher, um, you know and so that people understand where you fit into this space.”

Researcher: “…perhaps weren’t clear about what we, what our role was and maybe again it’s probably two-way… we have to do a memoranda of understanding and everybody needs to have a clear identification of their roles…it’s like setting that front, but also reminding people along the way…”

Complexities of the population health intervention

Researcher: “But that to me was the actual what was so interesting about the work was that we were looking at this in a real-world environment… we’ve taken something that was happening anyway and we’ve looked at it and put it under a microscope and we’ve tried to sort of understand it and what we’re seeing is messy, its complex…”

KU: “… when you have programs that you’re trying to establish as population based, when you’re in a system that doesn’t really recognize that way of working.”