How to optimise medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease in hospital
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

How to optimise medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease in hospital

Cindy Marguerite Cox Principal academic in nursing, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise the necessity of flagging up that a patient admitted to hospital has Parkinson’s disease

  • To enhance your understanding of the importance of administering antiparkinsonian medicines on time

  • To find resources that can be disseminated to ward staff to improve their knowledge of Parkinson’s disease

Rationale and key points

Hospital admissions can be challenging for people with Parkinson’s disease, in part because of the lack of understanding, among some healthcare professionals, of the importance of administering antiparkinsonian medicines on time. This article outlines the steps that nurses can take to optimise medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease who are admitted to hospital.

• Pharmacotherapy is the primary treatment for Parkinson’s disease and aims to increase dopamine levels in the brain to relieve symptoms.

• People with Parkinson’s disease require careful administration, titration, adjustment and monitoring of their antiparkinsonian medicines regimen, which is highly individualised.

• It is crucial that people with Parkinson’s disease take their antiparkinsonian medicines at exactly the right time, since the inaccurate timing of these medicines can have significant adverse health implications.

Reflective activity

‘How to’ articles can help to update your practice and ensure it remains evidence-based. Apply this article to your practice. Reflect on and write a short account of:

• How this article might improve your practice when undertaking medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease in hospital.

• How you could use this information to educate nursing students or your colleagues on optimising medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease in hospital.

Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2024.e1480

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

cmcox@bournemouth.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Cox CM (2024) How to optimise medicines management for people with Parkinson’s disease in hospital. Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2024.e1480

Published online: 04 September 2024

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