About the Authors

My best friend's poetry album says that I already knew as a child that I wanted to be a nurse.

And so it happened that after I got my university entrance qualification, I enrolled in the nursing school of a psychiatric specialist clinic in Düsseldorf (Germany).

In 2001 I obtained my degree as a registered nurse, which I completed on a neurological ward. Thus, the foundation was laid: Even in all the years after my exams, neurology has not let me go and the Parkinson's disease has accompanied me since the beginning of my most recent professional career.

For the next 12 years I worked almost exclusively on neurological wards in Germany (Düsseldorf) and Austria (Vienna), where I always had a lot of contact with Parkinson's patients, in addition to other neurological diseases, like MS or Stroke.

In 2008, I decided to do postgraduate studies and enrolled at the IMC FH Krems (Austria) for the Advanced Nursing Practice course with a focus on nursing sciences and management, which I completed with a bachelor's degree in 2011. For the next 2 years, I gained experience as a ward and department manager in inpatient long-term care.

After a total of 15 years in inpatient care, in 2013 I decided to continue my career in the home care sector. From then on, my focus was exclusively on Parkinson's and very specifically on subcutaneous apomorphine therapy. For the next 8.5 years, as the first and initially only apomorphine therapy specialist, I was jointly responsible for setting up Austria-wide nurse support and was the first point of contact for specialists and patients for therapy initiations and titrations, as well as the contact person for aftercare after successful therapy adjustment for pen and pump patients. I have worked a lot with big names such as Prof. R. Katzenschlager, Prof. W. Poewe, Prof. W. Pirker and Privatdozent Dr. D. Volc and was able to gain a lot of knowledge from them, which I am now very happy to pass on.

Since 2022, I have been passing on the experience and knowledge I have gained over many years at EVER Neuro Pharma as International Nursing & Application Manager. I train medical professionals in Parkinson's disease and apomorphine treatment and support business partners in the implementation of homecare structures in accordance with the respective local and country-specific health systems.

My last milestone was the further training as a Parkinson's nurse, which I was able to successfully complete in Innsbruck (Austria) under the flag of Prof. Dr. W. Poewe at the end of 2024. Since then, I am officially allowed to use the additional title "Parkinson Nurse" in accordance with § 64 of the Austrian Health and Nursing Act, which makes me very proud. This special step is a great enrichment not only for me personally, but also for the entire EVER Pharma company. In my role as International Nursing and Application Manager for dopaminergic therapies, I can now operate even more specifically and with in-depth specialist knowledge worldwide and offer my colleagues and customers competent support on all aspects of Parkinson's. Training as a Parkinson's nurse has broadened my horizons and gives me the tools to make an important difference in this industry. I look forward every day to passing on this valuable knowledge worldwide and, together with my team, to ensuring improved care for people with Parkinson's.

I have had my nursing degree since 2007 and I actually wanted to pursue a career as a surgical nurse while still in school. By chance I worked for a few weeks at the Schön Klinik München Schwabing, which is very well known for its Parkinson expertise in Munich. After just a few days, I noticed that the patients I worked with were incredibly grateful, happy for my help and I found working in the neurological field very exciting - so I stayed and got to work together with greats like Professor Ceballos-Baumann, Dr. Michael Messner, Dr. Urban Fietzek and many more. Six and a half years together we met, treated, accompanied, trained, made laugh and comforted countless patients.

In 2014, I started as a field representative, taking care of patients in Bavaria with an apomorphine pump or pen in their home environment. During this time, I got to know and appreciate Nina. We were both very passionate about our job from the beginning and love working with the Parkinson community. Now it's been more than nine years in this job, and I still feel very comfortable and happy to be there for "my" patients, doctors and nurses.

In 2018, I talked to the wife of a patient who was very unsure about the "right" diet for her husband suffering from Parkinson's disease. She said that she had not found anything in which she could read up or get information in general. This got me thinking and after some research, it turned out that there is actually very little german information on the topic of nutrition for Parkinson's. I thought, there should be someone, who is taking care of that gap and so I started training to become a nutritionist. After graduation, I wrote a nutrition guide and cookbook together with my good friend, Dr. Urban Fietzek. We are very proud of the result and already received very good feedback from patients, relatives and doctors.”

No one in my family comes from nursing or medicine, but it was always clear to me, that I wanted to be a nurse. I've always helped friends with wound dressings and bandages.

After school, I was an Au Pair in London and had time to think about whether I wanted to do the training to become a nurse. So I did my training 1999 at a hospital in Hamburg where neurology is a major focus. I was immediately fascinated by this area of care. After 14 years as a nurse treating stroke patients, it was time to explore another area of neurology. And that's how I came to Parkinson's.

In 2016 I started as a therapy specialist in the field in the care of patients with an apomorphine pump and an apomorphine pen in northern Germany. Both as a nurse in the clinic and in the field caring for Parkinson's patients, I have enjoyed guiding new employees. I love to passing on the knowledge I have acquired more and more. …and I'm always looking forward to further exchanges.