Liverpool pioneers Schwartz Rounds student success
A University of Liverpool-led project that supported healthcare students in the North of England to engage with the emotional aspects of their clinical experience is now being adopted at a national scale.
Schwartz Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum designed for all staff working in healthcare settings to come together to discuss and reflect on the emotional impact of caring for patients. Licensed in the UK by the Point of Care Foundation, Schwartz Rounds run in more than 270 healthcare organisations across the UK and Ireland.
Back in 2016, Liverpool was the first university in the UK to run interprofessional Schwartz Rounds for its healthcare students. The Rounds were well received and led to the University being chosen to help expand the provision to more students across the North of England.
The ‘Schwarz North’ project was funded by Health Education England North* and enabled nine universities in the North of England to run interprofessional student Schwartz Rounds from 2019-2022.
Led by Dr Laura Golding, Project Officer Vikki Grimbly, and a team of staff from across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, the project reached a total of 1,396 students. Feedback was very positive with 98% agreeing that hearing others talk openly about their personal feelings in the context of their work was helpful and that attending Schwartz Rounds had helped them to gain insight into how others think and feel in caring for patients.
The success of the Schwartz North project has led to the development of two more HEE funded initiatives using the same model, resources and materials that the HLS team developed – in the South of England (Schwartz South) and in the Midlands (Schwartz Midlands). It has also led the Point of Care Foundation to set up a UK wide HEI Schwartz Rounds project, which Dr Golding now leads.
Dr Golding said: “It’s thanks to the huge amount of hard work and commitment from colleagues across the nine Schwartz North universities and the support of Health Education England North and the Point of Care Foundation that the project was such a success.
“Many more HEIs across the UK are now starting to run student Schwartz Rounds. We have led from the North and from this university and are very proud of this! The Faculty Schwartz Rounds team won a university team student experience award in 2018 and we also won a Faculty Learning and Teaching and Student Experience team award for our Schwartz North work in 2022.
“The project took on additional significance as Schwartz Rounds across the UK have been shown to help to support healthcare staff and students with the emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and, of course, they continue to do so given the current challenges of working in the NHS.”
For more information about Schwartz Rounds at the University of Liverpool please visit https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/education-directorate/student-experience/schwartzrounds/
Download the Schwartz North Project Report 2019-2022
Watch: What Schwartz Rounds are and why they are beneficial to attend -
Note
* As of 1st April 2023, Health Education England merged with NHS England to become NHS England Workforce, Training & Education.