Schwartz Center Rounds
Beverly Hospital hosts Schwartz Center Rounds for their
professional staff. The Rounds are unique, multi-disciplinary
sessions in which hospital staff explore the emotional side of
caregiving. A national program with sites across the country,
Schwartz Center Rounds are funded by the Kenneth B. Schwartz
Center, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing
compassionate healthcare.
The purpose of the Rounds is to provide a forum where caregivers
from diverse disciplines discuss important emotional and social
issues that arise in caring for patients. The participants to
the Rounds can be a broad range of professionals - physicians,
nurses, social workers, psychologists, physical therapists and
clergy.
In a typical Rounds session, a panel of caregivers presents a
patient case that brought up interesting and important psychosocial
issues. Patient and caregiver confidentiality is
maintained. Topics for Schwartz Center Rounds have included:
delivering bad news; when religious or spiritual beliefs conflict
with medical advice; taking care of a colleague; and losing a
patient. Hospital staff then shares their own thoughts and feelings
related to the day's topic. Unlike grand rounds, these sessions are
not about clinical problem-solving, but rather about exploring and
processing the emotions that come up in the daily work of hospital
staff. A comprehensive study of Schwartz Center Rounds has shown
them to help caregivers connect better with patients emotionally;
enhance their understanding of the effects of illness on patients
and their families; improve communication among caregivers and
decrease feelings of caregiver isolation and stress.
