It Takes a Team

Nursing faculty use an interdisciplinary approach to teaching Parkinson’s care.

Concordia’s interdisciplinary case studies are meant to simulate real-world models of how to approach a patient’s care by using feedback from different disciplines.

The nursing faculty have been working on the Interdisciplinary Case Studies at Concordia for about seven years. Associate professors of nursing Dr. Jennifer DeJong ’94 and Dr. Jack Rydell began the project with now retired professor of nutrition and dietetics Dr. Betty Larson and Dr. Laurie Dahley, assistant professor of social work.

For DeJong, Parkinson’s Disease is personal. Her father-in-law, Dennis L DeJong, now age 77, is the reason for her interest.

“He’s the impetus for my study and why I became so intrigued with the care of individuals living with Parkinson's disease – because I wanted to know more to help him, learn more to influence the care he received, and hopefully make a difference in my father-in-law’s life who was diagnosed with a disease that was altering his daily functioning and changing the way he saw his future,” she said.

In addition, PD affects many in North Dakota and is one of the top neurological diagnoses in the state. Estimates show the number of people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the U.S. is expected to rise to 1.2 million by 2030.

PD is a progressive neurological disease that affects more than one’s physical health. Concordia uses the interdisciplinary approach to teaching about the care of PD patients because it takes a team to treat patients with PD.

The case studies bring students together during community time to discuss the care of patients and bring disciplines together to learn to talk to one another before they graduate from Concordia.

“When we bring students together from nursing, exercise science, nutrition, healthcare administration, social work and education, students learn to work as a team,” DeJong said. “They learn how teams will work in actual settings and learn to listen and prioritize care. Patients and their families benefit.”

In 2013, DeJong said she heard about the Edmond J. Safra Nurse Faculty Program, jumped at the opportunity and was accepted into the program. It teaches faculty about PD so they in turn can impact PD by educating nursing students who will go on to care for patients and their families. The more they know about PD, the better care they can provide.

Established in 2009, the 50-hour accredited train-the-trainer Nurse Faculty Program improves PD nursing care by training faculty leaders across the U.S. Nurses are critical to Parkinson’s care due to the growing number of people living with Parkinson’s and the shortage of neurologists specializing in it. The program has trained more than 300 nurses who in turn educate an estimated 24,000 nursing students each year.

The program required a “project,” so DeJong worked with four high-achieving senior students to help assess their peers’ knowledge and confidence levels in the care and treatment of individuals with PD, eventually publishing the findings and presenting at the Celebration of Student Scholarship.

DeJong was nominated for The Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Outstanding Alumni Award. She also received a travel grant from the Parkinson’s Foundation to attend the 4th World Parkinson Congress, a worldwide congress supported by leading researchers every three years, and a travel grant to attend and present at the 5th World Parkinson Congress in Kyoto, Japan, in June 2019.

DeJong has continued to present the interdisciplinary work at numerous presentations and was awarded a sabbatical leave to complete Parkinson’s clinical with the Sanford Neurology department at the Brain and Spine Center in Fargo in fall 2019. Her goal was to increase her PD knowledge in caring for PD patients and their caregivers, thereby increasing the competency levels of her students.

She’s also become more involved in the Parkinson’s community, fundraising for the Let’s Move Virtual Parkinson’s Fundraising Event and is a member of several PD boards.

“As we say, you don’t have Parkinson’s Disease, you are a person living with Parkinson’s Disease and we can all make a difference for people and their loved ones to help them live well with this diagnosis,” DeJong said. “Even if we can’t cure, we can always care.”

“And while my father-in-law has declined and is in the final stages of PD, the interdisciplinary team has been there for him and us,” she said. “He has his family and this team of people who care for him, and that has made all the difference. When I think back to my goals over the last few years, for both him and myself, that is what I had hoped for – that he would have people surrounding him to help him through this, that he would know we love him through our service, and that every step of the way, that other individuals living with PD would know that they are not alone in this fight.”