Congratulations – now that you have completed Section 4 you have reached the end of this course. You may have worked through this course in a number of different ways – perhaps alone, or with a colleague or group of colleagues. You may have used the hub to share experiences and discuss your thoughts and ideas with your peers.
You can download this resource and view it offline. It may be useful as part of a group activity.
During each section, you should have completed your reflection log. This will have enabled you to record and reflect on your previous experiences and current practice, and consider what changes you may make in the future. Make sure you keep a copy of this in a safe place. It is an important document because it will help you to develop your role as a practitioner, and may be useful for further study.
It’s important to recap what you have learned. In this course, you have learned about:
Within these areas of learning there are some key messages.
You may want to review all or particular parts of the course before taking the final test. You need to take the quiz to earn the badge, but it is also important to review the course for your learning.
It may also be helpful to review your reflection log before taking the final test. This will remind you of your thoughts on particular areas of learning and practice.
Now try the end-of-course quiz.
Everything you have learned in this course is important for your practice. How you apply this knowledge to your role will determine how well you can provide support to improve the lives of people affected by Parkinson’s and their families.
If you are a nurse working in a hospital or a care/nursing home, understanding how vital the timing of medication is will improve the lives of your patients/residents. If you are a therapist, understanding why your client has a blank expression will enable you to communicate more effectively with them. If you are a carer working in a residential setting or supporting people in their own homes, understanding how to best support someone who has frozen will help both you and them.
There are many more examples we could give here. You know your own role and how best to use the knowledge gained from the course to make positive practical changes.
The Open University is committed to supporting students from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances. The Parkinson’s Excellence Network brings together health and social care professionals to transform care for people affected by Parkinson’s.
It would be great to receive your feedback about this course. We are keen to know about the parts you found useful and where you feel we can improve. You can post your views on our short survey – thank you in advance for completing it.
The Parkinson’s Excellence Network offers resources to support service improvement and engage people affected by Parkinson's, comprehensive information about education and training, and collaboration opportunities. We recommend that you visit the website and sign up for the newsletter to receive regular updates.
Find out more: http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/ professionals/ uk-parkinsons-excellence-network
The following references relate to this course from the original award-winning learning programme, ‘Understanding Parkinson’s for health and social care staff’ programme.
Funayama M et al (2022) 'Molecular genetics of Parkinson’s disease: Contributions and global trends', Journal of Human Genetics. Available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s10038-022-01058-5
Lang AE and Obeso JA (2004) ‘Challenges in Parkinson's disease: restoration of the nigrostriatal dopamine system is not enough’ The Lancet Neurology; 3(5):309–316
MacMahon DG, Thomas S, Campbell (1999) ‘Validation of pathways paradigm for the management of PD’, Parkinsonism & Related. Disorders;5:S53
Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) 2022
NICE, Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (2022). Available at https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/parkinsons-disease/diagnosis [Accessed September 2022]
Ho, A K et al (2008) ‘For better or worse: The effect of levodopa on speech in Parkinson's disease’, Movement Disorders; 23(4):574–80
Dashtipour K et al (2018) ‘Speech disorders in Parkinson's disease: pathophysiology, medical management and surgical approaches’. Neurodegenerative Disease Management. doi: 10.2217/nmt-2018-0021 [Accessed September 2022]
Jankovic J (2008) ‘Parkinson's disease: clinical features and diagnosis’, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry; 79(4):368–76
Schapira AH et al (2009) ‘Levodopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease’, European Journal of Neurology; 16(9):982–9
Zarotti, N., Eccles, F.J.R., Foley, J.A., Paget, A., Gunn, S., Leroi, I. and Simpson, J. (2021), Psychological interventions for people with Parkinson’s disease in the early 2020s: Where do we stand?. Psychol Psychother Theory Res Pract, 94: 760-797. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12321
Won JH et al (2021) 'Risk and mortality of aspiration pneumonia in Parkinson's disease: a nationwide database study'. Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 23;11(1):6597. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86011-w
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Parkinson's disease in adults: NICE guideline [NG71] overview (2017). Available at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng71 [Accessed September 2022]
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Parkinson’s disease in adults: diagnosis and management (2017). Available at https://www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/ NG71 [Accessed September 2022]
NICE Parkinson's disease quality standard [QS164] (2018). Available at https://www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/ qs164 [Accessed September 2022]
This course is based on an award-winning learning programme, Understanding Parkinson’s for health and social care staff programme. The learning programme was developed by Fiona Barrett (formerly Parkinson’s UK) and much of the material in the elearning programme and guide was drawn and adapted from existing Parkinson’s UK resources originally developed for use by people with Parkinson’s, with additional material and activities developed by education staff. These resources were developed using consultation with people affected by Parkinson’s and health and social care professionals. The professionals consulted were from several disciplines including Parkinson’s specialist nurses. There was also input from two volunteers: Gary Hattie from Scottish Borders Group and Martin McGeehan from the Interclyde group, to support the Learning Programme. Our thanks and appreciations go to both for their invaluable insight and thoughtful comments during the development process.
This course was adapted from the learning programme and was developed by Claire Hewitt (Parkinson’s UK) with assistance from Pete Cannell and Ronald Macintyre (The Open University) as part of the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland Project.
Particular thanks and appreciation go to the J. Macdonald Menzies Trust, which provided the funding to enable the development of the learning programme and this course.
The following materials in this course are All Rights Reserved. Please apply to the copyright holder to reuse these materials:
All images and figures in this course belong to Parkinson’s UK. Please contact Parkinson’s UK if you wish to reuse any of the images.
The animated table ‘The phases of Parkinson’s’ in Section 1.9 is adapted from a table in Understanding Parkinson’s for health and social care staff – resource book, which came from:
All videos in this course belong to Parkinson’s UK. Please contact Parkinson’s UK if you wish to reuse any of the videos.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated in the acknowledgements section, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.
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The Parkinson’s Excellence Network is working to transform health and care services for people with Parkinson's across the UK.
We bring together and support health and social care professionals to better care for people with Parkinson's. We share best practice, resources, education and support improvements to services for people with Parkinson’s and their families.
Better support, better services, better care. Every day. Together, we are transforming Parkinson’s care.
The Excellence Network is supported, funded and facilitated by Parkinson’s UK.
Whether you’re living with Parkinson’s, caring for someone that does or would just like to learn more, you can help improve Parkinson’s care.
Join us to access resources, shape Parkinson’s care and collaborate with the Parkinson's community to transform health and care services.
Visit the Parkinson’s Excellence Network.