Schwartz Center Rounds: An Intervention to Enhance Staff Well-Being and Promote Organisational Change

Schwartz Centre Rounds (Rounds), which originated in Boston, USA, are organisation-wide forums for healthcare staff which prompt reflection and discussion of the emotional, social or ethical challenges of healthcare work. Drawing on data from our UK National evaluation of Rounds we outline the unique features of Rounds as an organisational intervention, highlighting their differences to other wellbeing interventions and explain how Rounds work to influence organisational change and patient safety. As Rounds are open to all staff they are able to shine a spotlight on hidden organisational roles and staff groups, sparking greater insight and understanding of what peoples’ roles involve, resulting in reported reduced isolation and staff connection through sharing similar experiences. Rounds can help staff see and connect with the bigger picture of how the organisation functions helping to develop organisational cohesiveness and connectedness to the organisational mission and values and provide a space to process patient cases and learn from mistakes. Rounds can provide a counter-cultural space, allowing opportunities for staff to process and reflect upon difficult and satisfying aspects of their work as individuals, within teams and as an organisation. We reflect upon the challenges of implementing and sustaining Rounds including their evaluation and measuring organisational change resulting from Rounds provision.