Supporting staff to deliver compassionate care through Schwartz centre rounds: a therapeutic radiographer’s perspective

Abstract

Keywords: Schwartz centre round, support, compassionate care Introduction: Therapeutic radiographers play a vital role in delivering compassionate care for cancer patients. The Schwartz round is a reflective forum where staff from all disciplines discuss emotional and social issues that arise in caring for patients. They share ideas, thoughts and feelings of a chosen topic without problem solving1. Mount Vernon cancer centre has been running these rounds since 2014. As a therapeutic radiographer I have been part of the steering group to involve therapeutic radiographers and other AHP’s as panellists or participants. Method and materials:•a trained facilitator runs the round for 1 hour•Meetings held to agree subject matter: eg “a staff perspective: Cervical cancer from treatment to survivorship, the day we pulled together as a team, cultural challenges in care.”•8 rounds held between 2016-2018•supported by the point of care foundation•164 evaluations Results and evaluation comments:•224 attendees•28/round•35% nurses/doctors•Rest - AHP’s, radiographers, social workers, volunteers, pharmacists.•99% evaluations between good and exceptional•'Refreshing to have a MDT discussion on how we feel about our work, patients, but we rarely meet each other to discuss the aspects of their 'journey' through our services'.•'Excellent. Made me appreciate side effects of brachytherapy - especially surrounding sexuality and long term issues with this'. Conclusion and discussions: Where Radiotherapy plays a part in a patients’ journey, it is important that a therapeutic radiographer is represented prior, during and following the round. Evaluation would suggest that the rounds give participants an insight into other each other’s disciplines which is unique to the Schwartz round. This increased understanding makes for better working relationships and ultimately better care for the patients. It provides a setting for great depth and richness of discussion through human and emotional aspects. This way of supporting staff demonstrates that the organisation cares for their staff’s health and wellbeing and enables them to better deliver high quality compassionate care2. There is scope to extend this to all therapeutic radiographers which is an extension of clinical supervision3 recommended by the society of radiographers. Numerical