This week’s episode of the podcast about living with Parkinson’s is all about the subject that crops up time and again in our mailbag - the poor bedside manner of many doctors, particularly at the time of diagnosis.
On the subject of PD nurses, my Parkie husband and I recently took part in a PD UK organised PD Excellency network conference. We were there to tell the healthcare professionals present how important getting involved in a research interest group has been for us. While there I heard that there is one member of staff at Parkinson’s UK in London who is currently working full time on a UK wide survey of the number and workload/work pattern of PD nurses in all NHS regions. The charity will be using the results of this survey to identify the areas with highest need for immediate increase in the number of nurses - good news for all of us, my 84 year old dad who’s PD is quite advanced now and he has seen his PD nurse once in 7 years. At the excellency conference we heard some wonderful accounts of multidisciplinary clinics where newly diagnosed patients have an appointment after diagnosis and see the PD nurse, a physio, an occupational therapist (for practical aids etc) and a speech therapist - how fantastic is that! Going forwards they see the PD nurse alongside their consultant allowing the nurse to follow up any of the questions/concerns arising during the consultation.
I would love to read Mark's account of the Judge's retirement - but I'm not on Facebook. Could it be reproduced here??
Great idea - maybe as a "guest post".
On the subject of PD nurses, my Parkie husband and I recently took part in a PD UK organised PD Excellency network conference. We were there to tell the healthcare professionals present how important getting involved in a research interest group has been for us. While there I heard that there is one member of staff at Parkinson’s UK in London who is currently working full time on a UK wide survey of the number and workload/work pattern of PD nurses in all NHS regions. The charity will be using the results of this survey to identify the areas with highest need for immediate increase in the number of nurses - good news for all of us, my 84 year old dad who’s PD is quite advanced now and he has seen his PD nurse once in 7 years. At the excellency conference we heard some wonderful accounts of multidisciplinary clinics where newly diagnosed patients have an appointment after diagnosis and see the PD nurse, a physio, an occupational therapist (for practical aids etc) and a speech therapist - how fantastic is that! Going forwards they see the PD nurse alongside their consultant allowing the nurse to follow up any of the questions/concerns arising during the consultation.