None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Schwartz Rounds are a unique, organisation-wide interdisciplinary intervention aimed at enhancing staff wellbeing, compassionate care, teamwork, and organisational culture in healthcare settings. They provide a safe space wherein both clinical and non-clinical health staff can connect and share their experiences about the social and emotional aspects of health care. Although Schwartz Rounds have been assessed and widely implemented in the United States and United Kingdom, they are yet to be formally evaluated Australian healthcare settings. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and impact of Schwartz Rounds on staff wellbeing, compassionate care and organisational culture, in a tertiary metropolitan hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Methods and Analysis This mixed methods repeated measures pilot study will recruit 24 participants in two groups from two departments, the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the gastroenterology department. Participants from each group will take part in three unit-based Schwartz Rounds. Primary outcomes will include the study and intervention feasibility measures while secondary outcomes will include Maslach Burnout inventory, the Schwartz Centre Compassionate Care Scale, and Culture of Care Barometer. Primary and secondary outcomes will be collected at baseline, post-round, and three-month follow-up. Two focus-groups will be held approximately two months after completion of the Schwartz Rounds. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, chi-square tests, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to compare quantitative data across time points and groups. Qualitative data from focus groups and free-text survey questions will be analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. This study was approved by the Mater Misericordiae Ltd. Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), reference number: HREC/MML/71868, and the Griffith University HREC, reference number: 2021/025.
Interventions
Schwartz Rounds provide a safe space wherein both clinical and non-clinical health care staff can connect with each other and share their experiences about the social and emotional aspects of patient care and broader related issues.Schwartz Rounds are structured group meetings led by a nominated facilitator. They involve 2-3 panel members who briefly share their stories about challenges of healthcare for about 5 minutes each, followed by the facilitataed, reflective discussion with the audience.
Schwartz Rounds provide a safe space wherein both clinical and non-clinical health care staff can connect with each other and share their experiences about the social and emotional aspects of patient care and broader related issues.Schwartz Rounds are structured group meetings led by a nominated facilitator. They involve 2-3 panel members who briefly share their stories about challenges of healthcare for about 5 minutes each, followed by the facilitataed, reflective discussion with the audience. Schwartz Rounds last for approximately 1 hour and are conducted monthly. In this pilot trial, Schwartz Rounds will be deliverd to two different departments, intensive care unit (ICU) and gastroenterology department. Each department will receive three Schwartz Rounds, a month apart. The Rounds will be conducted with a group of 8-20 participants, in large hospital meeting rooms, suitable for this purpose. Adherence to the intervention i.e. intervention fidelity, will be monitored through session attendance checklists, and fidelity checklists completed immediately post Rounds. Focus groups will be held after the completion of the Rounds, to give participants the opportunity to provide detailed feedback on the Rounds. They will be conducted approximately two months after the third Round for each group. They will have between 5-10 participants, in keeping with the reccomended numbers for this type of research. Participants for the focus groups will be invited at the initial recruitment for the study, they will be informed that focus group participation is not mandatory but based on them opting in to participate in the focus groups. Once the first 10 participants are enrolled for the focus groups, further recruitment for the focus groups will stop. Focus groups will be facilitated by an external member of the research team (psychologist at Griffith University) with prior experience in facilitating groups and adequate knowledge of the topic and the purpose of the group. Conversation openers developed by the research team will be used. Qualitative data from the focus groups transcripts will be analysed thematically by two researchers independently to ensure validity.
Sponsors
Griffith University
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Single group
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
All staff employed at Mater Hospital Brisbane. who are interested in participating.
Exclusion criteria
None
Outcome results
None listed