Best foot forward: Schwartz Rounds at the annual podiatry conference
09 December 2024
Eryn London reflects on the experience of facilitating a Schwartz Round at the Royal College of Podiatry annual conference, and the opportunities for offering Rounds through professional leadership bodies and member organisations.
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I recently attended the annual conference of the Royal College of Podiatry in Harrogate, along with Sarah Massie. We had been invited to facilitate two Schwartz Rounds for delegates.
It was an opportunity for us to show the impact that Schwartz Rounds can make, but also to learn about a part of the health workforce that were not as familiar with before.
Podiatrists are specialists of the foot and lower limb. They work in NHS Trusts, often as part of a multidisciplinary team caring for diabetes and cardiac patients or in specialisms such as paediatric podiatry or foot surgery. However, many work independently, often in small private practices, where they provide vital care for millions of people, dealing with everything from ingrown toenails to sports injuries. They are a vital first line of support in community settings, with an important link into the wider health system as referrers or prescribers. Often, diseases such as diabetes or heart problems are detected in symptoms affecting the feet.
For many within the workforce, looking after one’s own wellbeing is a difficult challenge. There are myriad additional pressures that this kind of work creates: the need to travel to see patients, the challenges of working with often vulnerable patients, the commercial difficulties of running a small business, and the challenges of continuing to provide excellent care in the face of this complexity. Structurally, however, there are often no spaces for reflective practice – or even another colleague to talk to – for a lot of small private practitioners.
In Harrogate, we were impressed by the enthusiasm shown by delegates in the Schwartz Rounds that we ran. The first, on the theme of ‘Running on Empty’, seemed particularly to resonate, and we were encouraged by some of the feedback we received after the event from people who had taken part. Podiatrists, like many community-based health workers, welcomed the opportunity to reflect on their work, to share their stories – and in many cases to take comfort from learning that they are not alone in the challenges they face.
We have been thinking a lot about how Schwartz Rounds can be made accessible for people working outside of organisations where they are hosted. While those working with NHS trusts may be able to access Rounds through their organisations, for the small independent practice, no such facility exists. But as we have seen, the realities of their work are no less challenging.
Working with another of the allied health professions at the Society of Radiographers, we have been exploring ways in which professional leadership bodies can support their members by acting as a Schwartz ‘site’. The SOR has registered with us to be a site, and we provided training for four Schwartz facilitators, who run regular virtual Rounds with student and newly qualified radiographers. It’s a model that seems to work well, as professional membership organisations can access large parts of the workforce, extending the opportunity to participate in Schwartz Rounds to many thousands of health workers who might not have been able to access Rounds through conventional means. It also means that Rounds may be more focused on the experiences of a particular type of worker – though there is still rich diversity of roles and experiences, even within an individual profession.
Aside from virtual Rounds, which help resolve geographic obstacles to people coming together, organisations like the Royal College of Podiatry operate through regional branch networks, which could also provide a means to access Rounds. Or a combination of virtual Rounds and an in-real-life Rounds at events like the annual conference, may offer a solution.
We’re grateful to the Royal College of Podiatry for having us along to their conference and look forward to more conversations about how we can make Rounds accessible to all parts of the health system.