Ellen Solomon and Lauren Linkowski Receive Grant from the Gold Humanism Honor Society

Congratulations to Drs. Ellen Solomon and Lauren Linkowski for receiving funding from the Gold Humanism Honor Society!

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is a community of medical students, physicians, and other leaders who have been recognized for their compassionate care. GHHS reinforces and supports the human connection in healthcare, which is essential for the health of patients and clinicians.

Drs. Solomon and Linkowski received this award in partnership with Dr. Caitlin Merley for their project, “Exploring the History and Impact of Intensive Care Unit Grieving Rounds on Clinician Moral Injury and Burnout.”

PROJECT SUMMARY: The Grieving Rounds program was established 13 years ago to provide a structured opportunity to debrief patient deaths, difficult cases, and the accompanying complex emotional responses of clinicians-in-training in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. However, the impact of this innovative program has never been formally evaluated and the current literature on programs like GR is sparse. The purpose of the project is to evaluate the current Grieving Rounds program at Penn to (1) understand its impact and (2) generate foundational knowledge that can inform best practices and pitfalls in the design of similar programs at other institutions. The program will be analyzed using a mixed-methods evaluation. First, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with faculty members and chaplains who have served as Grieving Rounds facilitators over the years to explore (1) the history and core components of Grieving Rounds, (2) facilitator’s perceptions of burnout and moral injury, and (3) how grieving rounds may impact burnout and moral injury among house staff. Second, informed by our qualitative findings, we will design and implement a survey to measure the impacts of Grieving Rounds among trainees participating in the program.