The Schwartz Rounds project, based in the Institute of Population Health, was thrilled to discover last week that their team nomination for a Faculty Learning and Teaching and Student Experience (LTSE) Award was successful.
Schwartz Rounds, which are licensed in the UK by the Point of Care Foundation, provide a structured space for students to come together to discuss the emotional aspects of their work and support their capacity to deliver compassionate care. This helps to normalise the strong emotions that arise from clinical work during training, as well as enable students to have greater insight, compassion for and appreciation of the roles and work of other healthcare professionals.
The team has been successful for its demonstrable positive impact on teaching and support activities having run Schwartz Rounds with University of Liverpool students training on nine different healthcare programmes across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences since 2016 and continuing this through the pandemic by learning to deliver Rounds online. With funding from Health Education England North, the team set up the Schwartz North project and have enabled nine universities in the North of England to run Schwartz Rounds with health and care students as part of this innovative project.
Dr Laura Golding, the University’s Schwartz Rounds Lead, was delighted that the importance of their work had been recognised with this award,
"I’m thrilled that the Faculty has recognised the University’s Schwartz Rounds Team’s work continuing to develop and run interprofessional Schwartz Rounds with students through the pandemic when the need to support healthcare students with the emotional impact of their clinical work has been even greater. We are very proud to have shared our learning and proof of concept so successfully with nine universities in the North of England. Feedback from the nine universities, as well as our University, tells attending Rounds helps healthcare students in relation to interprofessional learning and increases their awareness of other healthcare professions’ roles and the importance of working as a team."
Along with the award, the team has been granted a Faculty prize of £500 to be spent on learning, teaching and/or student enhancement activities. For the Schwartz Rounds team, this will be used to continue to support the delivery of the Rounds.
As a LTSE 2022 award winner they are now also eligible to compete for the Alistair Pilkington Award 2022; here they must submit a pitch covering the impact and transferability (and potential future impact and transferability) of their work.
The winner of this award will receive £1000 to be spent on further learning, teaching and/or student experience activities.
Since the mid-1990s, the University has been recognising the importance of excellence in learning and teaching in providing a high-quality experience for its students through the annual Learning & Teaching and Student Experience (LTSE) Awards scheme.
You can find out more about the scheme and previous winners click here.