NHS-funded Schwartz Midlands project announced
30 March 2023
Fourteen universities in the Midlands join £500k NHS-funded project to establish Schwartz Rounds for health and social care students and staff.
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The NHS is investing £490,400 to help universities in the Midlands establish Schwartz Rounds for their health and social care students and staff.
Fourteen Midlands-based universities have accepted the offer to begin working with the Point of Care Foundation to establish Schwartz Rounds:
- Aston University
- Birmingham City University
- Coventry University
- Newman University, Birmingham
- Staffordshire University
- University College Birmingham
- University of Birmingham
- University of Derby
- University of Leicester (hub university for East Midlands)
- University of Lincoln
- University of Northampton
- University of Nottingham
- University of Warwick (hub university for West Midlands)
- University of Worcester
This group will make Schwartz Rounds available for the first time to around 65,000[1] students of health and social care disciplines.
Schwartz Rounds are structured, monthly forums where clinical and non-clinical staff in health and care organisations come together to share experiences and discuss the emotional and social aspects of their work. Developed by the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare (Boston, USA), they have been shown to halve rates of psychological distress among people who regularly attend.
As well as reducing feelings of stress and isolation at work, Schwartz Rounds can help to foster inter-professional understanding and are seen as valuable in supporting the wellbeing and development of students and early career professionals.
Laura Golding (Schwartz Rounds in Higher Education Project Lead, the Point of Care Foundation) commented: “This funding to enable universities in the Midlands to run Schwartz Rounds is very timely and welcome. Schwartz Rounds can support students’ wellbeing and capacity to offer compassionate care whilst in training – and beyond – by normalising strong emotions that arise from their work. This is an exciting opportunity that will enable many health and social care students to benefit from attending Rounds.”
Participating universities will work with the Point of Care Foundation to establish Schwartz Rounds during the coming months, and form a regional network of institutions. The University of Warwick and the University of Leicester are operating as ‘hub’ universities for the West and East Midlands respectively, and will provide coordination and support for the network.
This is the third NHS-funded Schwartz Rounds project in universities in England, and will roughly double the number of universities running Rounds for students.
Schwartz Rounds can be established in any health or care organisation in the UK, with support from the Point of Care Foundation, which holds the license to run Rounds in the UK and Ireland.
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1. Estimate based on students taking health and social care disciplines at the 14 universities, taken from information published by Office for Students.