Integrated Ethics
The goal of attending patient rounds and interdisciplinary meetings is to:
- Offer a more proactive service by anticipating potential dilemmas or deliberating nascent issues.
- Provide opportunities to engage in educational ethical issue discourse.
- Instill the ethicist with an understanding of the environment, context, and culture by which each team navigates.
- Provide another agile mechanism of formal ethics consultation requests.
Schwartz Rounds
Schwartz Rounds are grand rounds style events that focus on a case, or a theme related to the emotional impact of patient care that care team members experience. A multidisciplinary panel is facilitated to share their experiences, and then the discussion opens up to comments from audience participants. It is a great way to reflect on subjects that may not be typically discussed in a group forum.
Panelists from diverse disciplines participate in the sessions, including physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, allied health professionals and chaplains. After listening to a panel’s brief presentation on an identified case or topic, caregivers in the audience are invited to share their own perspectives on the case and broader related issues.
Background information
The Schwartz Rounds™ program, now taking place in more than 430 healthcare organizations throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and more than 150 sites throughout the U.K. and Ireland, offers healthcare providers a regularly scheduled time during their fast-paced work lives to openly and honestly discuss the social and emotional issues they face caring for patients and families.
In contrast to traditional medical rounds, the focus is on the human dimension of medicine. Caregivers have an opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts and feelings on thought-provoking topics drawn from actual patient cases. The premise is that caregivers are better able to make personal connections with patients and colleagues when they have greater insight into their own responses and feelings. A hallmark of the program is interdisciplinary dialogue and engaging discussion.
As a Schwartz Center member, UTMB Galveston launched its first Schwartz Rounds in December 2022.
Learn More about the Schwartz Center for Compassionate HealthCare
Why at UTMB? What are the benefits?
Schwartz Rounds sessions strengthen the caregiver-patient relationship and remind caregivers why they entered the healthcare profession. Research has shown that the program has a unique and profound impact on caregivers as well as host organizations. This evaluation was published in Academic Medicine and can also be read in summary form here. Caregivers who participated in multiple Schwartz Rounds sessions reported:
- Improved teamwork, interdisciplinary communication, and appreciation for the roles and contributions of colleagues from different disciplines
- Decreased feelings of stress and isolation More openness to giving and receiving support
- Increased insight into the social and emotional aspects of patient care
- Increased feelings of compassion toward patients
- Increased readiness to respond to patients’ and families’ needs
In many cases, participants reported that insights gained at Schwartz Rounds sessions led to the implementation of specific changes in departmental or hospital-wide practices or policies to benefit both patients and providers. The study also found that the more Schwartz Rounds sessions caregivers attended, the greater the benefits they experienced.
"Schwartz Rounds are a place where people who don’t usually talk about the heart of the work are willing to share their vulnerability, to question themselves. The program provides an opportunity for dialogue that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the hospital.""
-UCSF Participant
