all. Also, the data collection period for FE is short and intensive. This meant that it was important, though not necessarily easy, to obtain a sense of the practice, and establish rapport with the practice team quickly. Being able to share experiences and discuss strategies to manage certain situations was a unique resource of support and learning opportunity. Concerns were shared and support was given during the teleconferences as well as through emails and phone calls between the telephone meetings. An approachable culture was actively developed from the start and throughout the field work and we felt this was key to the successful delivery of the study.

Discussion {#Sec15}
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A team-based FE in multiple general practice sites seemed well suited to the research aim. The approach allowed for observing howthe field work less lonely and isolated for the focused ethnographers.

However, the approach had several challenges. The co-investigators had to try to appoint focused ethnographers who had similar skills, and were likely to get on with each other, something that was challenging when looking for specialist skills across three University cities. Moreover, the data management was a huge task for the day to day lead who oversaw and checked all the coding, and ensured that data were safely and appropriately saved and stored. Research assistants employed in the senior FE lead's wider team were drafted in to assist with part of the process (there was no funding for this). Another challenge was to ensure the comparability of the varied case studies that were located in very different geographical