Parkinson's disease nurse specialists:
an important role in disease management.
A concerted effort by health-care professionals is central to delivering
effective clinical management of patients with Parkinson's disease.
Before the introduction of the first PD nurse specialist, a community study
showed PD patients need basic nursing care: for instance, more than half
experienced difficulties with constipation, micturition, or sleep patterns.
The evolving role (particularly in the United Kingdom) of PD nurse
specialists has started to address these problems.
Nurse specialists are ideally placed to assess personal concerns and
difficulties, furnish educational and emotional support, and facilitate
referral to health or social care agencies.
They can help physicians or neurologists in the assessment of physical and
psychological status, they can monitor the effects and side-effects of the
medications used to control the disease, and they can help in managing drug
titration.
The provision of a telephone support line, respite care facilities, and
psychological support and counseling can help with depression, anxiety,
hallucinations, and confusional states, some of which may be iatrogenic.
An integrated multidisciplinary PD service that incorporates nurse
specialists alongside their medical colleagues can offer support at the
individual level, education to the wider community and training for a
variety of clinical and lay staff.
The cost-effectiveness of such a system is attracting considerable
international interest and is currently being evaluated.
Publication Types:
Review
Review, tutorial
Neurology 1999;52(7 Suppl 3):S21-5
MacMahon DG
Camborne Redruth Community Hospital, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
PMID: 10227607, UI: 99242146
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/>
janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada
a new voice http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/
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