During my time as an ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) extern, I was able to learn more about ASHP’s commitment to improve workforce well-being and burnout. One survey published by Durham et al stated about 53% of health-system pharmacists reported a high degree of burnout, which in return can diminish quality of care and patient safety. One survey conducted by Harris poll found that 77% of patients become concerned about their own care and safety when their provider is feeling burned out. To continue supporting the pharmacy workforce and patients, ASHP seeks ongoing strategies to help cope with burnout and improve well-being and resilience.
One resource that I was not aware of, probably like most student pharmacists and pharmacists, was the Schwartz Center. During my time as an ASHP extern, I was able to meet with personnel from the Schwartz Center to learn more the opportunities that they provide along with hearing the organization's personal experiences. I learned that the Schwartz Center is an organization that works to support caregivers, healthcare leaders, and others to help bring compassion to every healthcare personnel’s experience.
The Schwartz Center mission is “to put compassion at the heart of healthcare through programs, education, and advocacy.” One way that the Schwartz Center accomplishes their mission is through Schwartz Rounds. Schwartz Rounds are interprofessional facilitated meetings that use actual patient cases to facilitate caregiver discussion on the social and emotional issues that they face in the healthcare field. The Schwartz Center trains facilitators to lead the rounds along with panelists from diverse disciplines, which allows caregivers to share their emotions and vulnerabilities in a safe space. The overall goal of the Schwartz Rounds is to remind caregivers why they chose to enter the healthcare profession and to improve patient care. Along with Schwartz Rounds, the Schwartz Center has many other opportunities for member engagement and compassion training, such as Stress First Aid.
Similar to ASHP’s commitment to supporting the workforce during COVID-19, the Schwartz Center has committed to helping provide support to caregivers during COVID-19 pandemic. The Schwartz Rounds have been made virtual due the COVID-19 pandemic and anywhere from 15 to 250 people can participate online. The COVID-19 Schwartz Rounds specifically talk about what it is like to be a caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to move forward from the changes that resulted from the pandemic. Furthermore, the Schwartz Center has created a COVID-19 pandemic resource page to help with caring for their patient, themselves, and their teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the resource page, there is a special webinar series to help caregivers manage both their own stress and others during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, ASHP members can connect on this topic by viewing the Caring for Pharmacy Workforce webinar series and starting conversations on ASHP Connect.
As a student pharmacist pursuing pharmacy residency training, I think that the Schwartz Rounds and their other available resources will be extremely valuable to myself and peers early on in our pharmacy careers. Many times, student pharmacists are left out of the conversation on how to integrate work and life and prevent burnout; however, I believe that it is imperative for students and new practitioners to engage with their emotions and stress from the hardships of the healthcare world before it escalates into burnout. As a P4 student, I think that there are opportunities to learn about dealing with patient loss or dealing with anxiety from a pandemic. The Schwartz Center allows those learning opportunities by providing a protected space for caregivers to come together to share their unique experiences. This will then allow caregivers, including student caregivers, to realize that they are not alone in their feelings and can provide better care for themselves and their patients. After my rotation at ASHP, I look forward to exploring opportunities to be involved in Schwartz Rounds at my institution and hearing about other’s everyday experiences in the healthcare world.
Kaitlyn Grieves
ASHP APPE Extern
Pharm.D. Candidate, Class of 2021
University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy
Resources:
- Durham ME, Bush PW, Ball AM. Evidence of burnout in health-system pharmacists. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2018;75(23 Supplement 4):S93-S100. doi:10.2146/ajhp170818
- ashp.org/News/2019/06/17/Clinician-Wellbeing-Survey
- The Schwartz Center. 2020. The Schwartz Center For Compassionate Healthcare - Boston | The Schwartz Center. [online] Available at: <https://www.theschwartzcenter.org> [Accessed 18 September 2020].