Iain Atherton
Iain Atherton

Dr Iain Atherton RGN, Ba(hons), MSc, FRGS, PhD, SFHEA

Senior Lecturer

Biography

I am an internationally recognised in the use of nationally representative survey, administrative and census data to answer policy relevant questions.

Since 2016 I have been a co-director of the ESRC funded Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research, one of the ADR UK network. That work has involved him working with colleagues across the UK to facilitate and encourage the use of anonymised linked administrative data to address key policy focused issues.
I lead a team of two (soon to be three) research fellows on ESRC funded projects using data to understand the drivers behind home deaths in Scotland, the dynamics of the nursing and midwifery professions across the UK, and the wellbeing of Scotland’s veteran community. This work involves a wide range of stakeholders from academia (including colleagues from other schools at Edinburgh Napier University), as well as policy, regulatory, and the public.

I was lead for Edinburgh Napier University’s development of a submission for Unit of Assessment 3 to REF 2021 between 2016 and 2019. I have also played a leading role in enabling the university to become a pocket of excellence associated with Unit of Assessment 3 (Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy) in the Scottish Graduate School for the Social Sciences.

I am passionate about the transformative potential of education. He has written on pedagogy in nurse education, and on the population health in pre-registration curriculum. He works closely with colleagues internationally to encourage person centred learning through flipped classroom approaches.

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Member of Nursing and Midwifery Council Thought Leadership Group

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Workshop lead: Unlocking data to better understand the nursing & midwifery workforce
  • Scientific advisory group - International Medical Geographies Symposium
  • Seminar: Last 1000 days of Life
  • Harnessing the Power of Datasets to Develop Policy in New Zealand
  • Frontier Event Organiser: Employability and tackling poverty
  • Organiser symposium on ‘Big Data’, RCN Research Conference, University of Nottingham.
  • Invited to sit on Scientific Advisory Panel for NETNEP International Nurse Education Conference (2015)

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial Advisory Group for the journal Nurse Education Today

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External reviewer promotion application

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • ADR UK - 'Cross-partnership working' award
  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • University of Stirling Rated Award
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • Scottish Graduate School for the Social Sciences proposal reviewer
  • Carnegie Trust Reviewer
  • ESRC Peer Review College membership

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Reviewer for applications to Scottish Graduate School for the Social Sciences Steer competition
  • Funding proposals reviewed for ESRC, Chief Scientists Office for Scotland, and Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare

 

Invited Speaker

  • ADR UK Webinar keynote on the NMC-Census England and Wales dataset
  • Invited to present to Centre for Healthcare Education Research, University of Aberdeen
  • Scotland Policy Conferences keynote speaker
  • RAF Association research seminar - invited speaker
  • Harnessing the power of large integrated national administrative datasets to develop policy in New Zealand
  • Using data to realise the potential of the 'Last 1000 days
  • Speaker at seminar organised for government analysts from South Korea
  • Medical and Nursing Faculties, University of Queensland, Australia (April 2016).
  • Scottish Blackboard Users Group (Scot-BUG) (2014).
  • NETNEP International Nurse Education Conference, Brisbane Australia (April 2016).
  • Scotstat Data Linkage Conference, Edinburgh (2012).
  • NETNEP International Nurse Education Conference, Netherlands (June 2014).
  • Scottish Longitudinal Studies Roadshow
  • Health and homelessness Conference, NHS Edinburgh, August, 2011.

 

Media Activity

  • Guardian article on end of life research

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Registered General Nurse

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • PhD examination
  • PhD Examination
  • MRes examination

 

Reviewing

  • Peer reviewing for Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
  • Peer review of journals: BMJ, Ageing and Society, Social Science and Medicine, Nursing and Health, Nursing Standard,and Population Space and Place.
  • Appointed to Economic and Social Research Council Peer Review College (2015)

 

Date


70 results

Development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Care Experience Feedback Improvement Tool (CEFIT)

Journal Article
Beattie, M., Shepherd, A., Lauder, W., Atherton, I., Cowie, J., & Murphy, D. J. (2016)
Development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Care Experience Feedback Improvement Tool (CEFIT). BMJ Open, 6(6), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010101
Objective To develop a structurally valid and reliable, yet brief measure of patient experience of hospital quality of care, the Care Experience Feedback Improvement Tool (CEF...

Stepping outside your comfort zone.

Journal Article
Atherton, I., & Kyle, R. (2015)
Stepping outside your comfort zone. Nursing Standard, 29, 24-25. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.29.21.24.s28
In the final article in this series on the social sciences, the authors explain how cultivating a spirit of enquiry enables nurses to travel beyond the limits of personal expe...

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among nurses in Scotland: A cross-sectional study using the Scottish Health Survey

Journal Article
Kyle, R. G., Neall, R. A., & Atherton, I. (2016)
Prevalence of overweight and obesity among nurses in Scotland: A cross-sectional study using the Scottish Health Survey. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 53, 126-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.10.015
Background Increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity represents a global pandemic. As the largest occupational group in international healthcare systems nurses are at t...

Psychological distress, optimism and general health in breast cancer survivors: a data linkage study using the Scottish Health Survey.

Journal Article
Leung, J., Atherton, I., Kyle, R. G., Hubbard, G., & McLaughlin, D. (2016)
Psychological distress, optimism and general health in breast cancer survivors: a data linkage study using the Scottish Health Survey. Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 24(4), 1755-1761. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-015-2968-2
Purpose The aim of this study is to examine the association between optimism and psychological distress in women with breast cancer after taking into account their self-rated ...

Nurses' health-related behaviours: protocol for a quantitative systematic review of prevalence of tobacco smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and dietary habits

Journal Article
Neall, R. A., Atherton, I. M., & Kyle, R. G. (2016)
Nurses' health-related behaviours: protocol for a quantitative systematic review of prevalence of tobacco smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and dietary habits. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 72(1), 197-204. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12739
Aim To enumerate nurses' health-related behaviour by critically appraising studies on tobacco smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and dietary habits. Background N...

Instruments to measure patient experience of healthcare quality in hospitals: a systematic review

Journal Article
Beattie, M., Murphy, D. J., Atherton, I., & Lauder, W. (2015)
Instruments to measure patient experience of healthcare quality in hospitals: a systematic review. Systematic Reviews, 4(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-015-0089-0
Improving and sustaining the quality of hospital care is an international challenge. Patient experience data can be used to target improvement and research. However, the use o...

Screening mammography uptake within Australia and Scotland in rural and urban populations.

Journal Article
Leung, J., McLaughlin, D., Woods, L. M., Henderson, R., Watson, A., Kyle, R. G., …MacLeod, C. (2015)
Screening mammography uptake within Australia and Scotland in rural and urban populations. Preventive medicine reports, 2, 559-562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2015.06.014
Objective. To test the hypothesis that rural populations had lower uptake of screening mammography than urban populations in the Scottish and Australian setting. Method. Scott...

“Everybody Knows Everybody Else’s Business”—Privacy in Rural Communities

Journal Article
Leung, J., Smith, A., Atherton, I., & McLaughlin, D. (2016)
“Everybody Knows Everybody Else’s Business”—Privacy in Rural Communities. Journal of Cancer Education, 31(4), 811-812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-015-0862-8
Patients have a right to privacy in a health care setting. This involves conversational discretion, security of medical records and physical privacy of remaining unnoticed or ...

33. Positive mental health in women living with breast cancer across geographic locations of residence: a data linkage study using the Scottish health survey.

Journal Article
Leung, J., Hubbard, G., Kyle, R., McLaughlin, D., Mullen, R., & Atherton, I. (2015)
33. Positive mental health in women living with breast cancer across geographic locations of residence: a data linkage study using the Scottish health survey. European journal of surgical oncology, 41(6), S27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejso.2015.03.034
Aims: Breast cancer campaigns and support groups emphasize the importance for breast cancer patients to stay positive. However, existing research on mental well-being of breas...

P001. Rural-urban differences in screening mammography uptake in Australia and Scotland.

Journal Article
Leung, J., Macleoad, C., McLaughlin, D., Woods, L., Henderson, R., Watson, A., …Atherton, I. (2015)
P001. Rural-urban differences in screening mammography uptake in Australia and Scotland. European journal of surgical oncology, 41(6), S28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejso.2015.03.037
Introduction: Previous research has shown that the uptake of health screening programs can be influenced by various demographics, such as deprivation, gender and, more recentl...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Nursing Education: what can perspectives from the social sciences contribute?
  • Cancer survivorship in Scotland: living with and beyond cancer in Scotland
  • ESRC +3 PhD funding
  • Simon Population Trust MSc funding (tuition fees and stipend)

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • Supervision of PhD at University of Dundee