How People with Parkinson's Disease and Health Care Professionals Wish to Partner in Care Using eHealth: Co-Design Study

The Perspectives of Healthcare Professionals and Managers on Patient Involvement in Care Pathway Development: A Discourse Analysis

BACKGROUND

The WHO advocates patient and public involvement as an ethical imperative, due to the value of the lived experience of patients. A deeper understanding of the shared meanings and underlying beliefs of healthcare professionals and managers for and against including patients in care pathway development.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the considerations of healthcare professionals and managers on the involvement of patients and public in care pathway development.

METHODS

In a medical rehabilitation centre we conducted a single case study that was part of a 2-year action research programme on blended care pathway development. Following 14 semistructured interviews with healthcare professionals and managers, we analysed their discourses on the value of patient involvement as well as the potential threats and opportunities.

RESULTS

We identified four discourses. Patient as expert frames involvement as relevant, as adding new perspectives and as required to fully understand the patient's needs. Skills and representation is based on the construct that obtaining valuable insights from patients requires certain skills and competences. Self-protection focusses on personal, interprofessional objections to patient involvement. Professional knows best reveals expertise-related reasons for avoiding or postponing involvement.

CONCLUSION

These discourses explain why patient and public involvement in care pathway development is sometimes postponed, limited in scope and level of participation, and/or avoided. The following strategies might minimise the paralysing effect of these discourses: strengthen the capabilities of all stakeholders involved; use a mix of complementary techniques to gain involvement in distinct phases of care pathway development; and create/facilitate a safe environment. Put together, these strategies would foster ongoing, reciprocal learning that could enhance patient involvement.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

This study belonged to an action research programme on blended care pathway development (developing an integrated, coordinated patient care plan that combines remote, digital telehealth applications, self-management tools and face-to-face care). Multidisciplinary teams took a quality collaborative approach to quality improvement (considering patients as stakeholders) to develop 11 blended care pathways. Although professionals and managers were instructed to invite patients onto their teams and to attend care pathway design workshops, few teams (3/11) actually did. Unravelling why this happened will help improve patient and public involvement in care pathway development.

A Delphi Panel of People With Parkinson's Disease Regarding Responsibility: Toward a Preliminary Taxonomy

IMPORTANCE

A sense of agency is associated with complex occupation-related responsibilities. A taxonomy can guide clinicians in enhancing responsibility in patients with Parkinson's disease (PwPD).

OBJECTIVE

To (1) discover levels of responsibility in occupations for PwPD and (2) propose a taxonomy for occupations.

DESIGN

A two-round Delphi study with PwPD and a one-round Delphi study with international experts.

SETTING

Electronic survey.

PARTICIPANTS

PwPD (N = 75) and international experts (N = 8).

OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

PwPD expressed their levels of an inherent sense of responsibility for each occupation (1 = very low responsibility, 5 = very high responsibility). International experts rated their level of agreement (5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree) with each dimension of the taxonomy. A consensus was determined to have been reached if the interquartile range was ≤1 and 70% agreement in two adjacent categories was achieved.

RESULTS

Thirty-three occupation categories were deemed as having very high to moderate responsibility for PwPD. Consequences of actions and the presence of others made up the two-dimensional responsibility taxonomy. Occupations have more challenging responsibility characteristics when they are performed with free choice, a level of high physical effort, alone, and with moral consequences.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

This study yielded the first consensus among PwPD regarding responsibility in occupations as well as a classification system for charting the complexity of responsibility in occupations. The occupation list we have created can be beneficial to health care professionals when providing interventions or conducting outcome assessments. Plain-Language Summary: When planning interventions for patients with Parkinson's disease, it can be helpful for clinicians to be aware of patients' perspectives regarding their sense of responsibility to perform occupations. The use of a systematic sequence of challenging occupations with responsibility attributes ranging from less complex to more complex can help enhance patient occupational participation.

Nurses' Roles in mHealth App Development: Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Although mobile health (mHealth) apps for both health consumers and health care providers are increasingly common, their implementation is frequently unsuccessful when there is a misalignment between the needs of the user and the app's functionality. Nurses are well positioned to help address this challenge. However, nurses' engagement in mHealth app development remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aims to determine the extent of the evidence of the role of nurses in app development, delineate developmental phases in which nurses are involved, and to characterize the type of mHealth apps nurses are involved in developing.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review following the 6-stage methodology. We searched 14 databases to identify publications on the role of nurses in mHealth app development and hand searched the reference lists of relevant publications. Two independent researchers performed all screening and data extraction, and a third reviewer resolved any discrepancies. Data were synthesized and grouped by the Software Development Life Cycle phase, and the app functionality was described using the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics functionality scoring system.

RESULTS

The screening process resulted in 157 publications being included in our analysis. Nurses were involved in mHealth app development across all stages of the Software Development Life Cycle but most frequently participated in design and prototyping, requirements gathering, and testing. Nurses most often played the role of evaluators, followed by subject matter experts. Nurses infrequently participated in software development or planning, and participation as patient advocates, research experts, or nurse informaticists was rare.

CONCLUSIONS

Although nurses were represented throughout the preimplementation development process, nurses' involvement was concentrated in specific phases and roles.

Occupations to Enhance Responsibility Among Patients With Parkinson's Disease: An International Delphi Study

IMPORTANCE

The ability to perform voluntary actions is disrupted in Parkinson's disease (PD). Voluntary activities play a critical role in generating sense of agency, which underpins the concept of responsibility for people's daily occupations and their outcomes. According to this concept, the dearth of research regarding the concept of responsibility in rehabilitation hampers practitioners in delivering evidence-based care.

OBJECTIVE

To generate a list of occupations that enhance an inherent sense of responsibility among people with PD that is based on consensus among experts.

DESIGN

An anonymous and iterative Delphi study with two rounds.

SETTING

Electronic survey.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred sixteen experts participated in the first round of the study, and 95 participated in the second round.

OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Panelists rated the level of inherent responsibility in each occupation and the importance of types of patient-related information on a 5-point Likert scale. Consensus was defined as reaching an interquartile range of >1.

RESULTS

In the first round, consensus was reached on 19 occupations and all 38 types of patient-related information. Also, an additional 15 occupations and 16 types of patient-related information were added to the lists. Consensus was reached for all occupations and patient-related information presented in the second round.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Our results indicate that 61 occupations were deemed to enhance a moderate to a very high inherent sense of responsibility among people with PD. In addition, a wide range of patient-related information is considered very important or important while these occupation-focused interventions are delivered. What This Article Adds: Subjective knowledge of one's actions and their consequences lies behind people's daily occupations. Considering this knowledge when administering occupation-focused interventions can be beneficial for individuals with PD.

Co-Designing Digital Technologies for Improving Clinical Care in People with Parkinson's Disease: What Did We Learn?

The healthcare model is shifting towards integrated care approaches. This new model requires patients to be more closely involved. The iCARE-PD project aims to address this need by developing a technology-enabled, home-based, and community-centered integrated care paradigm. A central part of this project is the codesign process of the model of care, exemplified by the active participation of patients in the design and iterative evaluation of three sensor-based technological solutions. We proposed a codesign methodology used for testing the usability and acceptability of these digital technologies and present initial results for one of them, MooVeo. Our results show the usefulness of this approach in testing the usability and acceptability as well as the opportunity to incorporate patients' feedback into the development. This initiative will hopefully help other groups incorporate a similar codesign approach and develop tools that are well adapted to patients' and care teams' needs.

Ethical, Legal, Organisational and Social Issues of Teleneurology: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide. Teleneurology (TN) allows neurology to be applied when the doctor and patient are not present in the same place, and sometimes not at the same time. In February 2021, the Spanish Ministry of Health requested a health technology assessment report on the implementation of TN as a complement to face-to-face neurological care.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted to answer the question on the ethical, legal, social, organisational, patient (ELSI) and environmental impact of TN. The assessment of these aspects was carried out by adapting the EUnetHTA Core Model 3.0 framework, the criteria established by the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment Agencies and the analysis criteria of the European Validate (VALues In Doing Assessments of healthcare TEchnologies) project. Key stakeholders were invited to discuss their concerns about TN in an online meeting. Subsequently, the following electronic databases were consulted from 2016 to 10 June 2021: MEDLINE and EMBASE.

RESULTS

79 studies met the inclusion criteria. This scoping review includes 37 studies related to acceptability and equity, 15 studies developed during COVID and 1 study on environmental aspects. Overall, the reported results reaffirm the necessary complementarity of TN with the usual face-to-face care.

CONCLUSIONS

This need for complementarity relates to factors such as acceptability, feasibility, risk of dehumanisation and aspects related to privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive data.

Successful implementation of technology in the management of Parkinson's disease: Barriers and facilitators

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with a fast increasing prevalence. Several pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are available to alleviate symptoms. Technology can be used to improve the efficiency, accessibility and feasibility of these treatments. Although many technologies are available, only few are actually implemented in daily clinical practice.

Aim

Here, we study the barriers and facilitators, as experienced by patients, caregivers and/or healthcare providers, to successful implement technology for PD management.

Methods

We performed a systematic literature search in the PubMed and Embase databases until June 2022. Two independent raters screened the titles, abstracts and full texts on: 1) people with PD; 2) using technology for disease management; 3) qualitative research methods providing patients', caregivers and/or healthcare providers' perspective, and; 4) full text available in English or Dutch. Case studies, reviews and conference abstracts were excluded.

Results

We found 5420 unique articles of which 34 were included in this study. Five categories were made: cueing (n = 3), exergaming (n = 3), remote monitoring using wearable sensors (n = 10), telerehabilitation (n = 8) and remote consultation (n = 10). The main barriers reported across categories were unfamiliarity with technology, high costs, technical issues and (motor) symptoms hampering the use of some technologies. Facilitators included good usability, experiencing beneficial effects and feeling safe whilst using the technology.

Conclusion

Although only few articles presented a qualitative evaluation of technologies, we found some important barriers and facilitators that may help to bridge the gap between the fast developing technological world and actual implementation in day-to-day living with PD.

Perspectives of Kidney Transplant Recipients on eHealth: Semistructured Interviews

The acceptability and impact of eHealth on patient outcomes may be limited if their concerns and priorities are not addressed. This study aimed to describe the perspectives and experiences of eHealth among kidney transplant recipients.

METHODS

Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 adult kidney transplant recipients from New South Wales, Australia (urban and regional), in ambulatory clinics. We used purposive sampling to obtain a wide range of demographic and clinical characteristics. Transcripts were analyzed thematically. Ethics was approved by the Western Sydney Local Health District (6054-2019/ETH08718).

FINDINGS

Six themes were identified: seeking access to quality care (prioritizing and trusting clinician advice, better safety and timeliness, enabled by user-friendly content); supporting self-management (responsive to individualized informational need, empowerment through practical knowledge, encouraging connectedness); assessing reliability and trustworthiness (discerning information integrity, applying to own context, apprehensive about privacy and confidentiality); enhancing health system capabilities (synergy with routine consultations, essential to coordination, achieving goals by real-time monitoring); technology burden and limitation (uncertainty with navigation and comprehension, challenged by technical difficulties, requiring additional preparation, confrontation and distress); and lacking applicable value (diminished assurance of medical services, existing practice and procedures, hampered by low expectations and disinterest).

CONCLUSION

Recipients felt eHealth could support healthcare delivery and self-management activities. However, they encountered challenges in navigating technology and were concerned about privacy, confidentiality, and misinformation. eHealth that is accessible, individualized, and secure may improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Parkinson's disease multimodal complex treatment improves gait performance: an exploratory wearable digital device-supported study

BACKGROUND

Wearable device-based parameters (DBP) objectively describe gait and balance impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD). We sought to investigate correlations between DBP of gait and balance and clinical scores, their respective changes throughout the inpatient multidisciplinary Parkinson's Disease Multimodal Complex Treatment (PD-MCT), and correlations between their changes.

METHODS

This exploratory observational study assessed 10 DBP and clinical scores at the start (T1) and end (T2) of a two-week PD-MCT of 25 PD in patients (mean age: 66.9 years, median HY stage: 2.5). Subjects performed four straight walking tasks under single- and dual-task conditions, and four balance tasks.

RESULTS

At T1, reduced gait velocity and larger sway area correlated with motor severity. Shorter strides during motor-motor dual-tasking correlated with motor complications. From T1 to T2, gait velocity improved, especially under dual-task conditions, stride length increased for motor-motor dual-tasking, and clinical scores measuring motor severity, balance, dexterity, executive functions, and motor complications changed favorably. Other gait parameters did not change significantly. Changes in motor complications, motor severity, and fear of falling correlated with changes in stride length, sway area, and measures of gait stability, respectively.

CONCLUSION

DBP of gait and balance reflect clinical scores, e.g., those of motor severity. PD-MCT significantly improves gait velocity and stride length and favorably affects additional DBP. Motor complications and fear of falling are factors that may influence the response to PD-MCT. A DBP-based assessment on admission to PD inpatient treatment could allow for more individualized therapy that can improve outcomes.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER AND DATE

DRKS00020948 number, 30-Mar-2020, retrospectively registered.

The use of co-production, co-design and co-creation to mobilise knowledge in the management of health conditions: a systematic review

Background

Knowledge mobilisation is a term used in healthcare research to describe the process of generating, sharing and using evidence. ‘Co’approaches, such as co-production, co-design and co-creation, have been proposed as a way of overcoming the knowledge to practice gap. There is a need to understand why researchers choose to adopt these approaches, how they achieve knowledge mobilisation in the management of health conditions, and the extent to which knowledge mobilisation is accomplished.

Methods

Studies that explicitly used the terms co-production, co-design or co-creation to mobilise knowledge in the management of health conditions were included. Web of Science, EMBASE via OvidSP, MEDLINE via OvidSP and CINHAL via EBSCO databases were searched up to April 2021. Quality assessment was carried out using the Joanna Briggs Institute qualitative quality assessment checklist. Pluye and Hong’s seven steps for mixed studies reviews were followed. Data were synthesised using thematic synthesis.

Results

Twenty four international studies were included. These were qualitative studies, case studies and study protocols. Key aspects of ‘co’approaches were bringing people together as active and equal partners, valuing all types of knowledge, using creative approaches to understand and solve problems, and using iterative prototyping techniques. Authors articulated mechanisms of action that included developing a shared understanding, identifying and meeting needs, giving everyone a voice and sense of ownership, and creating trust and confidence. They believed these mechanisms could produce interventions that were relevant and acceptable to stakeholders, more useable and more likely to be implemented in healthcare. Varied activities were used to promote these mechanisms such as interviews and creative workshops. There appeared to be a lack of robust evaluation of the interventions produced so little evidence in this review that ‘co’approaches improved the management of health conditions.

Conclusion

Those using ‘co’approaches believed that they could achieve knowledge mobilisation through a number of mechanisms, but there was no evidence that these led to improved health. The framework of key aspects and mechanisms of ‘co’approaches developed here may help researchers to meet the principles of these approaches. There is a need for robust evaluation to identify whether ‘co’approaches produce improved health outcomes.

Trial Registration

PROSPERO CRD42020187463.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08079-y.

Self-management interventions for people with Parkinson’s Disease: A scoping review (Preprint)

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Coping Styles in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: Consideration in the Co-Designing of Integrated Care Concepts

Integrated care models may help in designing care for Parkinson’s disease (PD) that is more efficient and patient-centered. However, in order to implement such models successfully, it is important to design these models around patients’ needs and preferences. Personality traits and coping styles play a well-studied important role in patients’ disease perception and their utilization of medical and social services to cope with their disease. There is evidence that coping styles remain largely unchanged over the course of PD; coping styles are defined in the early stages of life and extend over the entire lifespan of the patient. Therefore, it seems necessary to consider aspects of the personality traits and coping styles of PD patients in the development and implementation of care models. We postulate that by taking patients’ personality traits and coping styles into account, care models for PD can be designed in a more individualized and, thus, more effective way. This paper, structured in three main sections, attempts to structure the uptake of patients’ coping styles in the co-design of integrated care models. However, further studies are needed to better develop tailored care concepts to the needs of people living with PD and their individual coping styles.

Data Visualization for Chronic Neurological and Mental Health Condition Self-management: Systematic Review of User Perspectives

BACKGROUND

Remote measurement technologies (RMT) such as mobile health devices and apps are increasingly used by those living with chronic neurological and mental health conditions. RMT enables real-world data collection and regular feedback, providing users with insights about their own conditions. Data visualizations are an integral part of RMT, although little is known about visualization design preferences from the perspectives of those living with chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this review was to explore the experiences and preferences of individuals with chronic neurological and mental health conditions on data visualizations derived from RMT to manage health.

METHODS

In this systematic review, we searched peer-reviewed literature and conference proceedings (PubMed, IEEE Xplore, EMBASE, Web of Science, Association for Computing Machinery Computer-Human Interface proceedings, and the Cochrane Library) for original papers published between January 2007 and September 2021 that reported perspectives on data visualization of people living with chronic neurological and mental health conditions. Two reviewers independently screened each abstract and full-text article, with disagreements resolved through discussion. Studies were critically appraised, and extracted data underwent thematic synthesis.

RESULTS

We identified 35 eligible publications from 31 studies representing 12 conditions. Coded data coalesced into 3 themes: desire for data visualization, impact of visualizations on condition management, and visualization design considerations. Data visualizations were viewed as an integral part of users' experiences with RMT, impacting satisfaction and engagement. However, user preferences were diverse and often conflicting both between and within conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

When used effectively, data visualizations are valuable, engaging components of RMT. They can provide structure and insight, allowing individuals to manage their own health more effectively. However, visualizations are not "one-size-fits-all," and it is important to engage with potential users during visualization design to understand when, how, and with whom the visualizations will be used to manage health.

Co-designing a digital companion with people living with Parkinson's to support self-care in a personalized way: The eCARE-PD Study

eHealth technologies play a role in the development of integrated care models for people living with Parkinson disease by improving communication with their health care teams and support self-care practices in a personalized way. This article presents a co-design approach to designing an eHealth technology, the eCARE-PD platform, that addresses the needs and expectations of people living with Parkinson disease, generates tailored care tips, and recommends actions for managing care priorities at home. We use a co-design approach involving four main iterative phases: (1) preparation, (2) mapping, (3) testing and using, and (4) co-producing solutions and requirements. This approach uses several methods to engage people directly to design this technology. The study allowed us to identify design principles to be integrated in the development of the eCARE-PD platform. These principles incorporate the expectations of future users, which were expressed during the iterative phases of the co-design process: (a) six key design features based on users’ needs and expectations, (b) six main issues users raised during a test at home and key features for improving the design of the eCARE-PD platform, and (c) collective solutions to design an interactive, meaningful, tailored, empathic, and socially acceptable technology. The results of the successive phases of the co-design process allow us to underline the progressive constitution of a technology defined over successive iterations as a digital companion supporting the self-care process at home and having the capacity to generate tailored digital health communication.

The state of telemedicine for persons with Parkinson's disease

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The COVID-pandemic has facilitated the implementation of telemedicine in both clinical practice and research. We highlight recent developments in three promising areas of telemedicine: teleconsultation, telemonitoring, and teletreatment. We illustrate this using Parkinson's disease as a model for other chronic neurological disorders.

RECENT FINDINGS

Teleconsultations can reliably administer parts of the neurological examination remotely, but are typically not useful for establishing a reliable diagnosis. For follow-ups, teleconsultations can provide enhanced comfort and convenience to patients, and provide opportunities for blended and proactive care models. Barriers include technological challenges, limited clinician confidence, and a suboptimal clinician-patient relationship. Telemonitoring using wearable sensors and smartphone-based apps can support clinical decision-making, but we lack large-scale randomized controlled trials to prove effectiveness on clinical outcomes. Increasingly many trials are now incorporating telemonitoring as an exploratory outcome, but more work remains needed to demonstrate its clinical meaningfulness. Finding a balance between benefits and burdens for individual patients remains vital. Recent work emphasised the promise of various teletreatment solutions, such as remotely adjustable deep brain stimulation parameters, virtual reality enhanced exercise programs, and telephone-based cognitive behavioural therapy. Personal contact remains essential to ascertain adherence to teletreatment.

SUMMARY

The availability of different telemedicine tools for remote consultation, monitoring, and treatment is increasing. Future research should establish whether telemedicine improves outcomes in routine clinical care, and further underpin its merits both as intervention and outcome in research settings.

The work of having a chronic condition: development and psychometric evaluation of the distribution of co-care activities (DoCCA) scale

BACKGROUND

Chronic care involves multiple activities that can be performed by individuals and healthcare staff as well as by other actors and artifacts, such as eHealth services. Thus, chronic care management can be viewed as a system where the individual interacts with people and eHealth services performing activities to maintain or improve health and functioning, called co-care. Yet, the system perspective is not reflected in concepts such as person-centered care and shared decision making. This limits the understanding of individuals' global experience of chronic care management and subsequently the ability to optimize chronic care. The aim of this study was threefold: (1) to propose a theory-based operationalization of co-care for chronic care management, (2) to develop a scale to measure co-care as a distributed system of activities, and (3) to evaluate the scale's psychometric properties. With the theory of distributed cognition as a theoretical underpinning, co-care was operationalized along three dimensions: experience of activities, needs support, and goal orientation.

METHODS

Informed by the literature on patient experiences and work psychology, a scale denoted Distribution of Co-Care Activities (DoCCA) was developed with the three conceptualized dimensions, the activities dimension consisting of three sub-factors: demands, unnecessary tasks, and role clarity. It was tested with 113 primary care patients with chronic conditions in Sweden at two time points.

RESULTS

A confirmatory factor analysis showed support for a second-order model with the three conceptualized dimensions, with activities further divided into the three sub-factors. Cronbach's alpha values indicated a good to excellent reliability of the subscales, and correlations across time points with panel data indicated satisfactory test-retest reliability. Convergent, concurrent and predictive validity of the scale were, overall, satisfactory.

CONCLUSIONS

The psychometric evaluation supports a model consisting of activities (demands, unnecessary tasks, and role clarity), needs support and goal orientation that can be reliably measured with the DoCCA scale. The scale provides a way to assess chronic care management as a system, considering the perspective of the individuals with the chronic condition and how they perceive the work that must be done, across situations, either by themselves or through healthcare, eHealth, or other means.

A Systematic Review of Design Workshops for Health Information Technologies

Background: Design workshops offer effective methods in eliciting end-user participation from design inception to completion. Workshops unite stakeholders in the utilization of participatory methods, coalescing in the best possible creative solutions. Objective: This systematic review aimed to identify design approaches whilst providing guidance to health information technology designers/researchers in devising and organizing workshops. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in five medical/library databases identifying 568 articles. The initial duplication removal resulted in 562 articles. A criteria-based screening of the title field, abstracts, and pre-full-texts reviews resulted in 72 records for full-text review. The final review resulted in 10 article exclusions. Results: 62 publications were included in the review. These studies focused on consumer facing and clinical health information technologies. The studied technologies involved both clinician and patients and encompassed an array of health conditions. Diverse workshop activities and deliverables were reported. Only seven publications reported workshop evaluation data. Discussion: This systematic review focused on workshops as a design and research activity in the health informatics domain. Our review revealed three themes: (1) There are a variety of ways of conducting design workshops; (2) Workshops are effective design and research approaches; (3) Various levels of workshop details were reported.

Promoting Self-Care in Nursing Encounters with Persons Affected by Long-Term Conditions-A Proposed Model to Guide Clinical Care

Background: Nursing interventions for persons affected by long-term conditions should focus on providing support to enhance the ability to manage disease in everyday life. Many clinical nurses feel they have inadequate training or experience to provide self-management support in a beneficial and structured way. This study explores the process towards independent self-care and management of disease in persons affected by Parkinson’s disease and the support required from healthcare to achieve this. It presents a nursing model to guide nurses in providing self-management support in the clinical care encounter. Methods: The results from three previously published articles investigating a self-management support program for persons with Parkinson’s disease were combined to form a new data set, and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Results: Three separate, but interrelated, themes were identified, which described the process towards self-management of disease as expressed by the participants of the self-management program. Themes describe the factors important for developing and improving self-management abilities and actions. The results were applied to Orem’s Self-care deficit theory to suggest a model of self-management support in the clinical nursing encounter. Conclusion: This study investigated factors important for self-management and highlighted the unique contribution and focus of nursing support to promote independent self-care.