Schwartz Community of Practice Resources

Please find the notes from each monthly meeting.

Topics for Schwartz Rounds

Promoting Schwartz Rounds

Current context of NHS Trusts withdrawing/limiting provision of staff food, tea/coffee etc due to financial position. How to get a budget for food, can we advertise if a supermarket or our onsite fruit and veg on site donate food for Rounds?
Ideas for promoting Rounds: use rostering so staff can be rostered study leave to attend, word of mouth so taking promo to teams in presentation whether orientation day or team meetings.
Lack of logo or identify for Schwartz Round – ‘Schwartz Round’ doesn’t tell you want it is in the title so adding to title like Sherwood Stories Schwartz Rounds, having signatures on emails with links to details, importance of managers being bought in and wanting to do what you can to get people to Rounds.
We take them to development days but need to warn people about what they are and the topic giving them a free pass to step out before they attend not just on the day.

The Logistics of Running Schwartz Rounds

Running an ‘Information Schwartz Round’ – we do this about one a year, and have stories from different people involved in delivery of Rounds
Discussed the logistics re running pop-up Rounds and online sessions
Questions re criteria for being a Schwartz Round facilitator. Non-clinical staff can be facilitators. Hospital charities can access national charity money to support staff mental wellbeing.

Sustaining Schwartz Rounds

This is a universal issue. Support from senior leaders helps, ideally having someone on the steering group so that they are aware of what is happening and can promote Schwartz Rounds across the organisation. However, they can struggle to maintain this commitment and attendance at Rounds.
It can be helpful to target certain groups of staff or locations, and to involve the steering group in reaching out to find storytellers and promote attendance. One idea was to train people from different roles so that they can promote the Rounds in their work base or among their colleagues. Other ideas include delivering Rounds on the same day/time each month and consider varying location.
Several people shared how helpful it is to have a board member on their steering committee; the benefits of senior staff being storytellers; examples of Chief Execs funding Schwartz Rounds food etc after experiencing a Round. It was noted, too, that sharing food is an equaliser (breaks down hierarchical barriers) – work by Amy Edmonsdon and Edgar Schien demonstrates how this contributes to psychological safety.

General Schwartz Rounds issues

Discussed running online Rounds and how these help with logistics/attendance. Also discussed topics (see Word doc below).
An example of one Trust going out to staff in their organisation in the form of an engagement survey (via Microsoft Forms) to find out what topics staff would like to see and have planned Rounds for the rest of the year based on suggested topics (see Word doc below).
Another example of a Trust using the NHS staff survey comments to look for any themes which may be relevant as topics for their Schwartz Rounds.
Example promoting Rounds in relation to certain populations/events, or as a topic or series of Rounds, so they are not explicitly about discrimination but do give a platform for groups of staff or staff with diverse identities to be heard.