Parkinson’s Foundation Awards 2019 Nurse Faculty Grant to Three Nurses Specializing in Parkinson’s Care

NEW YORK & MIAMI (July 8, 2019) — The Parkinson’s Foundation today announced that it has awarded its second Parkinson’s Foundation Nurse Faculty Award to three nurses, totaling $30,000. The nurses, all graduates of the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Program, will each receive nearly $10,000 in grant funding from the Foundation to launch individual projects to help make life better for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).  

Given the increasing number of people living with Parkinson’s and the shortage of trained neurologists specializing in PD in the US, nurses play a critical role in the care model. The Parkinson’s Foundation supports the training of nurses specializing in PD through its professional education programs, including the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Program and the newly revamped Nurse Course and funds their research through the Parkinson’s Foundation Nurse Faculty Award, now in its second year.

“Nurses are on the front lines of the care team when it comes to Parkinson’s disease,” said John Lehr, Parkinson’s Foundation president and chief executive officer. “For that reason, it’s essential that we provide the best educational tools for nurses and that begins with our incredible Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty scholars. We’re excited to provide this award to our three scholars this year and increase the learning opportunities at their universities by supporting their unique projects.”

All three awardees completed the Parkinson’s Foundation Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Program — a 40-hour accredited program that teaches faculty leaders how to educate nursing students with ways to improve PD nursing care. As part of the program, every nurse designs a project to enhance the ability to teach more nurses, students or patients about Parkinson’s care. This award will fund the launch and/or implementation of these projects.

The three awardees include:

Char Miller, DNP: Her project will develop a PD virtual reality simulation (PDVRs), an innovative teaching strategy to increase awareness, knowledge, and perceived competence of caring for people with Parkinson’s. This research will determine whether a PDVRs is an effective learning strategy to increase undergraduate nursing student knowledge about PD and perceived competence in caring for a patient with PD in the hospital setting. Char is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Graduate Division of the Ohio University School of Nursing within the College of Health Sciences and Professions.

Ju Young Shin, PhD, APRN, ANP-C: Her pilot study is a 6-week patient-centered, nurse-led home visit and telehealth intervention aimed at improving medication management and adherence among individuals with early and moderate stage PD. Ju Young is an Associate Professor at the University of Delaware School of Nursing.

Lori Cooke, DNP, MEd, RN-BC: Her project will enhance Parkinson’s education for undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students through virtual reality (VR) simulation. Through the use of VR, students will be able to apply theoretical concepts to patient scenarios as a way to develop clinical decision-making skills and improve patient outcomes in a safe environment. In this project, students will care for a patient who is exhibiting complications due to lack of medication schedule adherence and actively assess, plan and implement interventions to improve patient function and prevent further complications. Lori Cooke is a Clinical Instructor of Nursing at Malone University.

“With the support from this grant, we will now be able to apply technological advances to  teach our nursing students how to develop clinical decision-making skills to deliver the best patient outcomes,” said Lori Cooke, DNP, MEd, RN-BC, Clinical Instructor of Nursing at Malone University and Edmond J. Safra Nurse Faculty Scholar. “Through Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation, students will see various scenarios that demonstrate the importance of administering medication on time, every time. They will also be able to recognize the adverse effects of medication withdrawal and identify contradicting medications with Parkinson’s disease.”

The Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Program at the Parkinson’s Foundation helps prepare the next generation of nurses to care for the growing population of people with Parkinson’s. Research shows that nurses can lead to significant improvement in the well-being of people with Parkinson’s.