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

  • Social care data event
  • Scottish Government Evidence in Policy Fortnight presentation
  • 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
  • Using data to realise the potential of the 'Last 1000 days
  • Harnessing the power of large integrated national administrative datasets to develop policy in New Zealand
  • Speaker at seminar organised for government analysts from South Korea
  • NETNEP International Nurse Education Conference, Brisbane Australia (April 2016).
  • Scotstat Data Linkage Conference, Edinburgh (2012).
  • NETNEP International Nurse Education Conference, Netherlands (June 2014).
  • Health and homelessness Conference, NHS Edinburgh, August, 2011.
  • Scottish Blackboard Users Group (Scot-BUG) (2014).
  • Scottish Longitudinal Studies Roadshow
  • Medical and Nursing Faculties, University of Queensland, Australia (April 2016).

 

Media Activity

  • Guardian article on end of life research

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Registered General Nurse

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • Examination of Abdunrin Aminu's PhD thesis ' Putting ageism in context: Examining the relationship between age discrimination and frailty among older individuals aged 65 years and over'
  • Examination of thesis by Mark Molesworth 'Nurse education, science and the body: A phenomenological inquiry'
  • Examination of Amanda Lee's PhD thesis 'A case study of survival and presentation of gastroesophageal cancer in local neighbourhoods'.
  • PhD examination of Shiraz Sherriff's thesis 'Exploring the Socio - environmental context in the Prevalence and Management of Asthma at Scottish General Practices'
  • 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


75 results

The Scottish Safe Staffing Act at Baseline: Quantitative Findings

Journal Article
Lake, E. T., Shamsuddin, A., Kiely, S., Lee, L., Golinelli, D., Villani, D., & Atherton, I. (online)
The Scottish Safe Staffing Act at Baseline: Quantitative Findings. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.70013
Introduction: Amid a global nurse staffing crisis, in 2019 Scotland legislated the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act to address health care workforce challenges. Inste...

Using the new Scottish Longitudinal Outcomes database (LEO) to understand transitions from university to practice amongst nursing students

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Pearsons, A., Mitchell, E., Shields, E., & Atherton, I. (2025, September)
Using the new Scottish Longitudinal Outcomes database (LEO) to understand transitions from university to practice amongst nursing students. Presented at Administrative Data Research UK Annual Conference 2025, Cardiff
Objectives Nursing is facing substantial workforce challenges. Applications to study nursing have declined by 25% in Scotland, while 900 vacancies remain unfilled. The NHS Lo...

Does being a nurse reduce likelihood of current smoking: an analysis of nationally representative data to investigate smoking across the UK nursing workforce

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Roberts, N. J., Roberts, N., Jamieson, M., Sharp, M. A., La Spada, L., Pathan, N., Butler, H., Nuttall, M., Hancock, C., Donovan, H., & Atherton, I. (2025, March)
Does being a nurse reduce likelihood of current smoking: an analysis of nationally representative data to investigate smoking across the UK nursing workforce. Presented at TSANZ 2025, Adelaide

'“As much as I miss it… I can't bring myself to go back”: Experiences of early career registered nurses who leave nursing.'

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Bastow, F., Atherton, I., McLuckie, C., & Mahoney, C. (2024, September)
'“As much as I miss it… I can't bring myself to go back”: Experiences of early career registered nurses who leave nursing.'. Presented at RCN International Nursing Research Conference 2024, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Background There is evidence of a nursing workforce crisis with increasing intention to leave (Royal College of Nursing, 2021), yet little is known about the experience of le...

Hypertension management and outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic: diagnosis, blood pressure telemonitoring use and mortality

Journal Article
Hanley, J., Paterson, M., Pollock, R., Parker, R., Neubeck, L., Atherton, I., Mchale, S., Pearsons, A., Mckinstry, B., & Guthrie, B. (2024)
Hypertension management and outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic: diagnosis, blood pressure telemonitoring use and mortality. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 23(Supplement_1), https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvae098.047
Introduction The effects of COVID-19 on people with hypertension are poorly understood, but potentially severe both due to increased risk of cardiovascular events post covid (...

What might make nurses stay? A protocol for discrete choice experiments to understand NHS nurses’ preferences at early-career and late-career stages

Journal Article
Ejebu, O., Turnbull, J., Atherton, I., Rafferty, A. M., Palmer, B., Philippou, J., …Ball, J. (2024)
What might make nurses stay? A protocol for discrete choice experiments to understand NHS nurses’ preferences at early-career and late-career stages. BMJ Open, 14, Article e075066. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-075066
Introduction: Like many countries, England has a national shortage of registered nurses. Employers strive to retain existing staff, to ease supply pressures. Disproportionate ...

Exploring the patient experience of remote hypertension management in Scotland during COVID-19: a qualitative study

Journal Article
Mchale, S., Paterson, M., Pearsons, A., Neubeck, L., Atherton, I., Guthrie, B., …Hanley, J. (2023)
Exploring the patient experience of remote hypertension management in Scotland during COVID-19: a qualitative study. BMJ Open, 13(12), Article e078944. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078944
Objectives The aim of this study was to understand how patients experienced hypertension management, with or without BP telemonitoring, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design...

Applied Social Science for Nursing Students

Book
Atherton, I., & Molesworth, M. (2024)
Applied Social Science for Nursing Students. London: SAGE Publications
This book introduces the essential social science that you need in order to register and practice effectively as a nurse. Contributions from the social sciences enable you to ...

Individuals who lived alone or with an unpaid carer approaching the end of life at 2001 and 2011 census in Scotland

Report
Savinc, J., & Atherton, I. (2023)
Individuals who lived alone or with an unpaid carer approaching the end of life at 2001 and 2011 census in Scotland. Scottish Government
The census provides invaluable information on Scotland’s population and linking it to other data enables analysis of specific groups to inform policy. The following briefing p...

Where less is more: Limited feedback in formative online multiple‐choice tests improves student self‐regulation

Journal Article
Say, R., Visentin, D., Saunders, A., Atherton, I., Carr, A., & King, C. (2024)
Where less is more: Limited feedback in formative online multiple‐choice tests improves student self‐regulation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 40(1), 89-103. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12868
Background: Formative online multiple‐choice tests are ubiquitous in higher education and potentially powerful learning tools. However, commonly used feedback approaches in on...

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