How Does Psychology Apply to Nursing in Parkinsons Amanda Mowery Psychology 101 Ms. Terry June 5, 2013

The Parkinsons Patient The Parkinsons patient, a farely new term in the medical industry, although Parkinsons has been around for awhile, it really did not come to the front of the line in a medical conversation, but it is now a front running disease in the medical world. In this research paper, we were asked to pick a topic that might be influential in our nursing career. The reason why I picked this certain topic is that my father is afflictated with this disease and as a nurse, I would like to provide him with the most knowledge, treatment and possible prevention methods that I can find or learn about. I have done a lot of research on this specific topic and have gain a lot of knowledge in the process. I am familiar with the signs and symptoms of this disease and what researchers thinks might be the initial cause of the disease. First I would like to explain what Parkinsons disease is. Parkinsons disease is a neurodegenerative disease that is progressive in the brain. The neurons that we have in our brains are what sends signals to other body parts to perform a specific function. In Parkinsons patients these functions become delayed or excessive. The neurons that everyone has have small threadlike projections called dendrites that send out electrical signals from the brain. These signals produce movement of the limbs, speaking, swallowing and even the simple task of blinking. But with the Parkinsons patient, this all gets “trapped or over worked”. The dendrites in a Parkinsons patient become “tangled” and this prevents the signals to be sent which in turn causes excessive movement or delayed movement in a Parkinsons patient. Parkinsons disease effects more than 7 million people worldwide. Since I have worked in the medical field for 13 years and have also worked in the field of neurology, I gained the knowledge of the signs and symptoms of Parkinsons. When a patient would come into the office that was suspected to have Parkinsons, their symptoms would be obviously apparent. Most of the patients would have a severe tremor or shaking to a certain extremity, they would also have some delayed or slurred speech, difficulty swallowing or even confusion or memory loss. They would lack in cognition also. The doctor would most often perform small neurological test on a suspected Parkinsons patient. Asking them to perform extremity movements or walking a straight line and even pricking them with a pin to see if a pain response was there. Most of the time the doctor spent with the patient was asking them questions about their daily routine or when the symptoms seemed to be the worst. I saw a lot of patients struggle with this type of questioning from the doctor. I believed that the patient needed to be able to speak for themselves in order to really project how they were feeling and what they wanted to be done about the problems they were having. I really related this with the “free association” in a psychological manner. As an upcoming nurse, I believe that a patient needs to speak their mind and tell us how they feel instead of us giving them a conditional question to answer.