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Programs
Schwartz Center Rounds

Rounds Kit

Facilitator Guide
Current Rounds Sites
Sample Topics
Sample Contract Letter
Sample Evaluation Form
Rounds Cases
Testimonials
Tips on Implementing Rounds

Case of the Month

Clinical Pastoral Education
Compassionate Caregiver Award
Patient Initiative
CarePages Partnership
Speaker Series

Sample Topics

	Managing team conflict around how to treat a patient
	How to tell a patient it may be time to stop treatment
	When your own issues of mortality come into play
	Caring for a colleague
	How to discuss a Do Not Resuscitate order with a patient and family
	When cultural and religious beliefs interfere with your ability to communicate
	When a patient cannot afford care
	Stories of hope/miracles
	The patient who refuses traditional treatment and opts for alternative medicine
	Pain management: comfort v. lucidity
	Breakdown in communication between patients and caregivers
	Care of the elderly: assumptions and challenges
	Race and the patient-caregiver relationship
	Sexuality and illness: conversation comfort zone
	Are we connecting with our patients or are we too busy?
	Does the internet help or hinder communication?
	Gifts from patients: what is acceptable?
	Timely hospice referrals
	Delivering bad news
	Children dealing with the death of a parent
	Pain management in the addicted patient
	Death during the holidays
	Communicating genetic risk: pros, cons and counsel
	Losing faith in God: dealing with spiritual crises with patients
	How it feels when a patient "fires" you
	Medical mistakes
	Dealing with unexpected loss
	Humor and healing
	The impaired professional
	"I should have gone into law": the personal price of caring for seriously ill patients
	When health care providers lose their jobs
	Allowing a good death
	Curtains have ears: privacy issues
	When you have to do things you think are wrong
	Maintaining boundaries when the patient is your friend
	Providing high-cost, cutting-edge, non-reimbursable care
	Putting compassion to the test: what to do when you do not want to walk into the room
	The relevance of rituals
	Losing patients when they go to hospice care
	Effect of financial status on health care

Oncology-specific Topics

	Phase 1 clinical trials
	Reproductive issues for cancer patients
	Negotiating cancer treatment in young adults
	The patient-caregiver relationship from the perspective of three cancer patients
	Domestic violence and the cancer patient
	The complexities of cancer, pregnancy, and substance abuse: a case review
	Ethics of endostatin: balancing hope v. hype
	Refusing treatment for a child with cancer

The following topics were rated "exceptional" by Schwartz Center Rounds attendees. For specific information about these topics, please contact the Schwartz Center.

	How do we respond to a patient’s request to pray?
	Provider-patient relationships (can we be friends?)
	Apologizing to patients
	When an error occurs despite our best efforts
	Happiness and sadness over the holidays
	The unexpected loss of a child
	Preparing for the end of a patient's life
	Medically induced trauma
	When the clinician becomes the patient
	Too young to die
	Dealing with the unexpected death
	When medical advice and religious conviction conflict
	What makes discussing hospice, palliative care and end of life so difficult?
	End-of-life decisions and the ER
	The hypervigilant family
	Feelings of failure when things don’t work
	Family refuses treatment when you believe patient can recover
	Encouraging patient autonomy
	When the dying patient is your parent
	Charity care – What happens when the resources dry up?
	Giving thanks
	Do you understand me? The Alzheimer patient’s primary caregiver
	Is the patient terminal?
	What makes you a compassionate caregiver?
	Taking care of our friends
	Family presence during a code
	Dealing with the unexpected diagnosis and death
	The chronically suicidal patient
	Infant death – its impact on patients
	Patients who smoke – what’s the right response?
	What to do when you don’t want to go in the room
	Child abuse – the impact and consequence of reporting
	When the patient is one of our own
	When we just can’t stand by – no insurance, need bone marrow transplant
	Listening not hearing
	210 call in 60 hours. What does it mean?
	A difficult patient -- journey to acceptance
	Accepting sometimes we cannot fix it
	Frequent flyers
	Giving (and retracting) bad news
	Maintaining hope
	Caring for the seriously ill young cancer patient
	When a parent of a young child is dying
	Boundaries
	When a patient response to treatments is less than you hoped for
	How patients are heard – nurse vs. physician perspectives
	When an intern’s patient dies
	A conversation with a family facing end of life issues
	End stage pancreatic cancer – Can miracles happen?
	Our patient is our peer
	I won’t let Daddy die
	The fearsome frontal lobe
	Putting compassion to the test
	Blurred boundaries
	The centrality of religion and spirituality in cultural competence/sensitivity for medical professionals
	Beyond clinical care
	BOATING (hospice patient play w/music)
	The legendary patient: how memorable patients leave a legacy for caregivers
	For a comprehensive list of Rounds topics by category click here.

A PATIENT’S STORY
In 1994, Ken Schwartz developed lung cancer. Read his extraordinary story. More >>

COMPASSIONATE CONNECTIONS

Visit the Schwartz Center's newest patient-centered initiative at CarePages, where patients, families and friends create free online support communities... Visit >>

OUR MISSION
To support and advance compassionate health care in which caregivers, patients and their families relate to one another in a way that provides hope to the patient... More >>

SCHWARTZ CENTER ROUNDS
Our multidisciplinary forum where caregivers discuss difficult issues arising from patient care. More >>

CAREGIVER TESTIMONIALS
‘‘Every time I find a project or organization that supports the human dimension of medicine, the Schwartz Center supports it...’’ More >>