Whole person care rounds: helping a hospital heal

Moving the culture of healthcare to embrace healing in addition to curing is a daunting task. Multiple approaches are required. One such approach has been the introduction of quarterly Whole Person Care (WPC) Rounds at our medical center. The Rounds are creatively developed by an interdisciplinary committee and are open to the entire hospital community, including non-clinicians, volunteers and hospice/home health staff. The Rounds have taken on a variety of formats, from panels of providers, panels of patients/family members, mixed panels and interactive workshops. Examples of titles are Mindfulness in the Workplace, Moral Dilemmas in Medicine, Flourishing in the Workplace, Whose Pain Is It, Anyway?, Death Over Dinner (at Lunch), Joy to the (Our) World. The format is a lunch meeting lasting one hour. The emphasis is always on some aspect of healing for patients, families, clinicians, non-clinical staff or volunteers. Mindfulness work is part of every Rounds. The Congress workshop format would allow an introduction of the concept, examples of previous Rounds, video clips of Rounds, feedback from attendees and interactive sample exercises performed with Congress learners accompanied by robust discussion