Guidance on addressing recent events in Schwartz Rounds
14 August 2024
A note from us about using Schwartz Rounds in response to the recent riots.
Topics
The attacks on communities and the violence directed at emergency and healthcare staff in recent weeks have been appalling and frightening. These events have intended to divide people, which directly opposes the Point of Care’s view and mission of shared humanity.
We’ve heard from many in the Schwartz Community that senior staff are encouraging facilitators to address the recent riots in Schwartz Rounds. While we fully support the need for safe spaces where staff can discuss these traumatic events, we must advise against using Schwartz Rounds for this purpose.
Schwartz Rounds are not intended to address issues that are live and unprocessed. Rounds were not designed to be used this way and doing so may lead them to be psychologically unsafe for facilitators, storytellers or attendees.
We are committed to helping the Schwartz Community find an appropriate way of addressing these issues. As such, we will be including this as a topic for discussion at an upcoming Schwartz Community of Practice meeting.
Thank you, from the Schwartz Team.