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Schwartz Rounds highlight humanity in healthcare

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group of people in graduation gowns holding certificates
The University's award-winning Schwartz Round project team

“As healthcare professionals we are humans first and foremost. It's okay to feel attached to our patients and wonder about them months later. It's not just you that does it, we all do.”

-University of Liverpool healthcare student feedback following a Schwartz Round

Schwartz Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum that provide a space for staff working in healthcare settings to come together and reflect on the personal aspects of caring for patients.

The underlying premise is that in facilitating healthcare staff to gain greater insights into their own feelings and experiences, they will be able to work more compassionately with patients and colleagues.

This rings true in feedback on last year’s rounds, where students shared how they not only gained increased insight into other healthcare professionals’ roles, but also felt a greater connection.

One said, “I really enjoyed the Schwartz Round and found it very comforting hearing from other healthcare workers. It gave me a real sense of community belonging.”

The University of Liverpool was the UK’s first to introduce Schwartz Rounds to students across its nine different healthcare programmes as part of a Health Education England (in the North West) funded pilot project.

The University’s Schwartz Round project team picked up a Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Award this summer for their efforts to support students in delivering compassionate care.

Dr Laura Golding has led Schwartz Rounds at Liverpool for the past six years and has recently joined the Point of Care Foundation as Project Lead – Schwartz Rounds in Higher Education to take this to a national level, enabling further universities to run Schwartz Rounds and looking at how to increase the availability of Rounds to newly qualified healthcare professionals including junior doctors.

Mr Dominic Johnson recently joined the School of Medicine as Vice Dean – Clinical and is an experienced Schwartz Round Facilitator. Clinical Teacher Dr Anthony Baynham is part of Liverpool's Schwartz Round project team.

They share where their own passion for the Rounds comes from, and why students should get involved this academic year.

What do you love most about Schwartz Rounds?

  • Laura Golding: Hearing powerful and moving stories about working in healthcare, feeling connected to everyone in the room through shared experience and learning about the experiences of those working in other healthcare disciplines. I always appreciate being in a calm, welcoming and reflective space at the end of a long day, enjoying a tea or coffee and a bite to eat before the Round. I never get tired of hearing about those small acts of kindness that inspired Kenneth Schwartz and that help to make the unbearable bearable.
  • Dominic Johnson: The sense of connection and support in the room that emerges through the process of the Round.
  • Anthony Baynham: The range of speakers and hearing from other specialities and professions. As I work in a Mental Health setting, I do not always get to hear about people’s experiences in acute trusts for example, and it is really helpful in understanding colleagues and their perspectives.

What do people sometimes get wrong about Schwartz Rounds?

  • Dominic: That you will be put on the spot or feel a need to contribute. It's not the case, it's fine to listen and contribute only if you feel you want to.
  • Laura: That you have to say or do anything in the Round other than listen to others; you can simply come and listen – that’s all part of the experience.
  • Anthony: That the only way to participate is by being active and speaking whereas being thoughtful and listening to others is participation just in a different way. I have come away from Rounds where I have been silently listening having learnt a lot.

What’s a breakthrough you have had thanks to a Schwartz Round?

  • Anthony: I recently was a speaker at a Round and it was powerful to be able to share the emotions I experienced with a patient who I looked after for six months. It helped me to understand that I do not like endings and that is why I often feel anxious when I am coming to the end of a post.
  • Dominic: Sharing my own anxieties after a respected colleague shared theirs.
  • Laura: Hearing from students about the power of being able to hear and talk about emotional experiences on placement, rather than the focus being on the science of their work.

What are you most looking forward to with Schwartz Rounds in 2022-23?

  • Laura: More medical students attending the Rounds!
  • Dominic: Hearing other's experiences and how they always chime with others in the room who are often total strangers!
  • Anthony: Seeing rounds with a range of student healthcare professionals and hearing about their experiences.

What’s one reason I should join a Schwartz Round as a student doctor this year?

  • Anthony: To help develop your understanding of the emotional side of medicine.
  • Laura: To find out what Schwartz Rounds are and what it feels like to attend one.
  • Dominic: To hear that people who you perceive as more senior to you have, or have had, the same challenges and anxieties you face.

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