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because compassionate care requires compassionate organisations
We believe high-quality, humanised health and care is compassionate towards patients and their families, and stems from compassion among staff. But humanising care often requires cultural change within organisations. Organisational culture affects relationships between staff and managers, and between staff and patients.
We work to develop the culture of health and care organisations through all our programmes.
New research identifies key types of responses in Schwartz Rounds and explores how they help achieve connections and affiliation amongst staff.
Rini Paul and Laura Golding reflect on a Schwartz Round they facilitated at the Better Together: International Medical Graduates & Educators Conference.
Jessie shares her journey of commitment to humanise healthcare through her personal and professional stories. She reflects on the importance of creating space for everyone to feel seen and heard in health and care settings.
Healthcare staff work in an environment where untreatable and terminal illness, disfigurement, suffering, and the pain of loss for patients and families can result in staff distancing themselves as a means of self-protection, which makes it more difficult to feel and show compassion
Professional training emphasises the importance of developing an ability to detach oneself from the patient’s distress and personal circumstances
Stress, and at its extreme, burnout, produces a lowered sense of personal effectiveness, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalisation of others which can limit compassion, and at its most extreme cause cruelty towards patients.
There is agreement that role modelling by colleagues is a powerful way of learning how to behave compassionately.
Staff who use reflective practice, such as Schwartz Rounds, find it easier to provide compassionate care