Designing and validating a measurement scale that evaluates how the patient lives with a chronic process such as Parkinson's disease has been the goal of the doctoral thesis defended by Leire Ambrosio in the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra. The research provides a new tool that makes it possible to identify quickly and easily what aspect or aspects make the person live better or worse with this pathology and, as a result, individualized plans can be designed according to their specific needs. The scale has been validated in 324 Parkinson's patients from Spain, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico and Cuba.

issue Thus, the main benefits of this innovative tool will be that "the healthcare professional will be able to prevent possible negative factors of living with the disease and, consequently, that the patient will be more autonomous in his or her daily life, reducing the number of consultations with the clinical specialist and becoming an expert in the care of the process," explained the new doctor. "All this will also reduce the overload of work of the professionals and will favor the reduction of waiting lists".

On the other hand, work insists on the importance of "the humanization of current social and healthcare care", that is to say, on the person and not on the patient or the disease. Thus, "we would speak of a new vision of living with a chronic process called 'integrative coexistence' whose characteristics are the holistic approach, individualized and unique process, measurable phenomenon, through scales such as the one designed in this thesis , and person-centered vision".

The doctoral thesis , which underlines the need to continue to deepen care to create synergies between research and internship, is part of the area of "Chronic processes and end-of-life care" of the School of Nursing and specifically, of the research ReNACE program.