Supporting NHS staff at work: Could Schwartz Centre Rounds hold the hold the key?
Supporting NHS staff at work: Could Schwartz Centre Rounds® hold the hold the key to a happier, healthier workforce and enhance compassionate care?
A team of researchers at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, led by Professor Jill Maben, Director, National Nursing Research Unit, are about to embark on a three year evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds®.
The national study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme (NIHR HS&DR), aims to uncover to what extent participation in Schwartz Centre Rounds® (known as ‘Schwartz Rounds’ or ‘Rounds’) affects staff wellbeing at work, improves relationships between staff and patients, and aids the provision of compassionate care in the UK.
Conceived in the US, Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum where staff from across healthcare settings regularly come together to discuss the non-clinical aspects of caring for patients, such as the psychological, emotional and social challenges associated with their work.
The results of the Francis inquiry, in 2013, highlighted major shortfalls in the provision of care to patients, and there is a widely acknowledged need to find new and better ways to support staff to deliver compassionate patient care in the NHS. The potential of Rounds to help meet this challenge was recognised in the Francis report, and the Department of Health has identified the need for effective organisational interventions that enhance the quality of patient care by providing emotional support to staff members.
Professor Jill Maben, Director, National Nursing Research Unit, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, will lead a team of researchers from King’s College London, Sheffield University and the King’s Fund, she said, “I am excited to be leading this important study. Schwartz Centre Rounds are now being implemented in 60 organisations in England, including acute and mental health trusts and hospices. This funding provides an excellent opportunity to study their implementation, effectiveness and any impact on care delivery and patient experiences of care”.
“What’s unique about Rounds is that they bring all staff together regardless of profession or speciality on an equal footing, to share their stories and experiences, their motivations and the different challenges they face in practice every day. They appear to provide an important space for staff to detail the highs and lows of their work and gain support and insights from colleagues.”
Schwartz Rounds are currently being implemented in around 60 organisations in the UK and are supported by The Point of Care Foundation, a charity which is the sole provider of training and support to organisations wishing to run Rounds in this country.
The study will build on the results of a small pilot published by The King’s Fund in 2009, involving two UK hospitals, which showed that it is possible to transfer Schwartz Rounds from the US to the UK, with participants reporting benefits for their day-to-day care of patients and a strengthening of team work. The King’s Fund’s point of care programme first brought Schwartz Rounds to the UK in 2009 prior to The Point of Care Foundation becoming an independent charity in 2013.
Jocelyn Cornwell, Director of The Point of Care Foundation, said “This research will make a significant contribution towards our understanding of what is needed to support staff in their difficult work of caring. Interest in Schwartz Rounds has grown hugely in the last three years and we are pleased that it is now possible to conduct a robust evaluation of their effectiveness.”
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For further information, interview or comment, please contact:
Oliver Stannard, Communications Officer, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London
Tel: 020 7848 3062
Email: oliver.stannard@kcl.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About Schwartz Centre Rounds®:
Schwartz Center Rounds® (‘Rounds’) were developed by the Boston-based Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare following the death of Kenneth Schwartz, who died in 1995 from lung cancer.
During his treatment, Ken Schwartz noted how some healthcare staff were able to be compassionate whilst others were not and how the same staff member could be compassionate one day and not the next. Before his death, he set up the Schwartz Center as a not-for-profit organisation designed to nurture compassion in healthcare, to encourage healthcare workers to make “the unbearable bearable” through “the smallest acts of kindness” and to strengthen the relationship between patients and their clinical caregivers.
The premise is that caregivers are better able to make personal connections with patients and colleagues when they have greater insight into their own responses and feelings and have an opportunity and space to process these feelings by listening and sharing their experiences with colleagues.
Schwartz Centre Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum, where clinical and non-clinical staff from across the healthcare setting or hospital regularly come together to discuss the non-clinical aspects of caring for patients i.e. the psychological, emotional and social challenges associated with their jobs.
They offer healthcare providers a regularly scheduled time to openly and honestly discuss the social and emotional issues they face in caring for patients and families, in a safe and confidential environment. In contrast to traditional medical rounds, the focus is on the human dimension of medicine.
Each Round lasts for one hour and begins with a multi-disciplinary panel presentation of a patient case by the team who cared for the patient. The panel that presents describe the impact that the experience of looking after that patient has had on them. A trained facilitator then guides discussion of emerging themes and issues, allowing time and space for the audience to reflect with the panel on similar experiences that they have had. Attendance is voluntary and staff attend as many or as few Rounds as they are able. Rounds are currently running in more than 320 healthcare organisations in the USA and around 60 in the UK.