Parkinson's disease: Addressing health care practitioners' automatic responses to hypomimia

Hypomimia/reduced facial mobility in individuals living with Parkinson's disease can lead to negative impressions and judgments by nurse practitioners and other health care practitioners. Negative impressions and judgments can affect the quality of an episode of care. To attenuate automatic judgments, nurse practitioners must self-monitor and correct, recognizing that hypomimia is due to an underlying neurological condition and does not provide information on the personality or character of the person living with Parkinson's. Nurse practitioners can integrate inquiries that go beyond a problem focused approach to include questions about pleasurable, positive events in the life of a person living with Parkinson's disease.