Schwartz North project celebrates successful completion with conference and launch of new animation
The Schwartz North project, which began in 2019 and is based in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and is cross-departmental/school and institute, celebrated its completion with the conference, Compassion at the heart of health and social care education: running student Schwartz Rounds in HEIs, on 22-23rd March at the Liverpool Medical Institution.
The University has been running Schwartz Rounds, licensed in the UK by the Point of Care Foundation, for students from nine healthcare professions since 2016. The success of this work led to the Schwartz North project, funded by Health Education England, which has enabled nine universities in the North of England to run Schwartz Rounds with health and social care students. The Rounds are now embedded in the universities and have successfully provided a structured space for students to come together to discuss the emotional aspects of their work and support their capacity to deliver compassionate care.
The success of the Rounds was evident with the conference, which was organised jointly with the Point of Care Foundation, with 69 delegates attending from across the UK and Ireland, from 32 universities, including more than 20 that were interested in running Rounds at their institutions in the future.
You can find out more details about the content of the conference here.
A highlight of the conference was the launch of a new animation, co-produced to explain to students ‘What is a Schwartz Round?’.
The animation was co-produced with staff and current and recently graduated ex-students from across the Schwartz North community – including the University of Leeds, University of York, Manchester Met University, UCLan, Point of Care Foundation and the University of Liverpool.
A key challenge running Schwartz Rounds with students was finding ways to explain what they are and the benefits of attending. Once students have been to a Round they frequently become ambassadors of Rounds and repeat attendees.
Speaking to Dr Laura Golding, the University’s Schwartz Rounds Lead, she commented,
“We are delighted with the success of the Schwartz North project which has resulted in the development of Schwartz South (University of Surrey) and also a national HEI Schwartz Rounds project with the Point of Care Foundation. We have led from this university sharing our knowledge and learning about running student Schwartz Rounds with other HEIs across the UK.
We know that Schwartz Rounds help to normalise the strong emotions that arise from clinical work during training, and enable students to have greater insight, compassion for and appreciation of the roles and work of other healthcare professionals. They also support interprofessional learning and enhance the student experience.
The hope is that as many universities as possible will start to run Schwartz Rounds building on what we started in Liverpool.”
Laura has also written a blog explaining the content of the conference and its purpose in greater detail. You can read it here.