Schwartz Center Rounds: A Qualitative Study of Outcomes

Wednesday, July 13, 2011: 8:30 AM

Denise Deppoliti, PhD, PMHCNS-BC
Cinical Resource and Development, St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, NY
Denise Côté-Arsenault, PhD, RNC, FNAP
School of Nursing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Jennifer H. Barry, LMSW
Social Work, St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, NY
Gina Myers, PhD, RN
Department of Nursing, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
Connie Leigh Randolph, RN, MS, CNS
Critical Care, St. Joseph's Hospital, Syracuse, NY
Brendan A. Tanner, LMSW, ACSW
Case Management Dept, St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, NY

Learning Objective 1: Discuss the social and emotional impact of Schwartz Rounds on clinical practice

Learning Objective 2: Describe two ways in which Schwartz Rounds positively influences interdisciplinary relationships

Purpose: To explore why participants attend Schwartz Rounds and what they get out of the experience.

Methods:  The study consisted of 4 focus groups of different audiences. One group consisted of nurses who attended rounds only once or multiple times. Two were multidisciplinary, and the last group were panelists who participated in the rounds. The groups were led by a nurse researcher at the hospital who had not participated in the Rounds and was unknown to the participants. Particpants were randomly selected from a list of particpants meeting the proposed criteria and sent a formal invitation. Any participants who declined were replaced by an invitation to another potential participant from the prepared list. The goal was to have 6-8 participants per group. All groups were tape recorded and transcribed and lasted 1 to 1 1/2 hours. No documentation was made with direct reference to any identifiers. Two members of the Schwartz Center Rounds committee took field notes during the focus groups. There was a series of standardized questions utilized by the facilitator. The data was analyzed by the faciliator of the focus groups, the field note takers and myself as facilitator of the Schwartz Center Rounds. Data analysis was accomplished utilizing grounded theory.a qualitative approach. The steps in data analysis included coding, core categories, theoretical sampling, comparisons, theoretical saturation, integration of theory, and theoretical sorting.

Results: Themes that emerged : Understanding perspectives and opinions of other health care professionals better which leads to better working relationships; attitudes towards other health care professionals has positively changed related to the degree of understanding of their feelings and emotions; reinforces not alone in feelings; fills in gaps in communication with other disciplines; decreases personal stress.

Conclusion: Rounds are effective in improving health care professional relationships, decreasing stress and improving communication in healthcare. Staff indicate that they are more effectively communicating with patients.