News Touchpoints Newsletter Press Releases Media Inquiries Press Kit In the News		In the News October 31 , 2005 Center Emphasizes Care In Caregiving: Nurses, Doctors Take 'Care Rounds' For Themselves TheBostonChannel.com BOSTON #151;#151; The memory of Kenneth Schwartz, who died of lung cancer, is living on at a center that emphasizes the care in caregiving. NewsCenter 5's Dr. Timothy Johnson reported Monday that for 27 years, nurse Elaine Adams has cared for the sick at Carney Hospital. It's challenging work, where decisions are made quickly and there is little time to reflect. "We make sure that they get to all their tests, they get all their medications. A lot of times, we go, go, go," she said. But on this day, she and about 70 of her colleagues will take an hour break to have, a therapy session of sorts. The Schwartz Rounds are designed so doctors, nurses, and other medical staff can vent and talk honestly about the emotional aspects of cases #151;#151; such as talking about an elderly patient who wound up in the ER with heart trouble, but who nurses recognized was the husband of a gravely ill woman in ICU. "The husband was there and he was just weepy. We decided to put him in a bed in the ICU, just so he could be close to his wife. We put a monitor on him, it was awful," one nurse said. Another spoke of a long-term intensive care patient, who seemed cheered when doctors began taping pictures and cartoons to the ceiling above her bed. "Putting people names to pictures that weren't the same, and kind a made a joke of the day and that lady began to turn around as far as getting hope that she may leave the intensive care unit," another nurse said. The Schwartz Center in Boston coordinates the sessions, which are now held in 80 health care cites in 22 states. The topics range from how to deliver bad news to how to care for a colleague. "The time pressures and the financial pressures have really contributed to an environment where caregivers feel very rushed, and they forget day to day that patients are patients, and they're not treating a procedure, they're not treating an illness, they're treating a patient," Schwartz Center's Julie Rosen said. For Adams, the Rounds are a chance to pause and remember why she got into nursing in the first place. "We can't help being rushed to get all the stuff done, their medications, their tests, but it's just the little things that we can do that make that part a bit easier for them," she said. There's no question medical advances have helped patients heal. But health care is about more than science #151;#151; something the Schwartz Center has been effectively reminding medical staff about for a decade. Copyright 2005 by TheBostonChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

‘‘The secret of caring for the patient is in caring for the patient.’’ Francis Greenwood Peabody, 1847-1936