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

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

 

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

By reaching out we can change worlds

Journal Article
Atherton, I., & Kyle, R. (2015)
By reaching out we can change worlds. Nursing Standard, 29(19), 22-23. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.29.19.22.s25
The Ebola epidemic has forced many nurses to face the limits of their power to help. But our feelings of empathy can be used to spark more local engagement with the people we ...

How empathy skills can change nursing.

Journal Article
Atherton, I., & Kyle, R. G. (2014)
How empathy skills can change nursing. Nursing Standard, 29, 24-25. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.29.11.24.s28
Empathetic understanding could be the basis of a revolution in nurse education and practice, freeing nurses from a reliance on stereotypical labels that mask the complex reali...

Habitat and health: why place matters.

Journal Article
Atherton, I., & Kyle, R. (2014)
Habitat and health: why place matters. Nursing Standard, 29(3), 24-25. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.29.3.24.s27
Each of us is shaped by the places we spend our lives in. Thinking about your patients in their geographical context – their biogeography – can enable more holistic care

Learn to see patients in their own world.

Journal Article
Atherton, I., & Kyle, R. (2014)
Learn to see patients in their own world. Nursing Standard, 28(50), 22-24. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.28.50.22.s26
Insights from the social sciences can help nurses understand the influences that shaped their patients and the decisions they make. This can develop empathy and encourage bett...

Prevalence of skin problems and leg ulceration in a sample of young injecting drug users

Journal Article
Coull, A. F., Atherton, I., Taylor, A., & Watterson, A. E. (2014)
Prevalence of skin problems and leg ulceration in a sample of young injecting drug users. Harm Reduction Journal, 11(1), 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-11-22
Drug users suffer harm from the injecting process, and clinical services are reporting increasing numbers presenting with skin-related problems such as abscesses and leg ulcer...

Delivering healthcare information via the internet: cardiac patients' access, usage, perceptions of usefulness, and web site content preferences.

Journal Article
Jones, J., Cassie, S., Thompson, M., Atherton, I., & Leslie, S. J. (2014)
Delivering healthcare information via the internet: cardiac patients' access, usage, perceptions of usefulness, and web site content preferences. Telemedicine and e-Health, 20(3), 223-227. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2013.0182
OBJECTIVES: To assess patients' usage of the Internet as a source of personal healthcare information and patients' perceptions of usefulness and content preferences of more ...

Instruments to measure patient experience of health care quality in hospitals: a systematic review protocol

Journal Article
Beattie, M., Lauder, W., Atherton, I., & Murphy, D. J. (2014)
Instruments to measure patient experience of health care quality in hospitals: a systematic review protocol. Systematic Reviews, 3, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-3-4
Improving and sustaining the quality of care in hospitals is an intractable and persistent challenge. The patients’ experience of the quality of hospital care can provide insi...

The use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for improving quality of life for inflammatory bowel disease patients: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation

Journal Article
Schoultz, M., Atherton, I., Hubbard, G., & Watson, A. J. M. (2013)
The use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for improving quality of life for inflammatory bowel disease patients: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation. Trials, 14(1), 431. https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-14-431
Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic condition with an unpredictable disease course. Rates of anxiety and depression among IBD patients in relapse (activ...

Local provision of percutaneous coronary intervention increases stenting rates and reduces length of hospital stay in remote regional centre.

Journal Article
Bruce, S., Smith, J., Atherton, I. & Leslie, S. J. (2013)
Local provision of percutaneous coronary intervention increases stenting rates and reduces length of hospital stay in remote regional centre. Rural and remote health. 13ISSN 1445-6354
Introduction: An early invasive strategy with follow-on percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is recommended in the management of high risk acute coronary syndromes (ACS). ...

The influence of non-modifiable illness perceptions on attendance at cardiac rehabilitation

Journal Article
Blair, J., Angus, N. J., Lauder, W. J., Atherton, I., Evans, J., & Leslie, S. J. (2014)
The influence of non-modifiable illness perceptions on attendance at cardiac rehabilitation. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 13(1), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474515113477272
Background: Despite the established benefits of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) attendance rates remain variable. Physical barriers to attendance have been extensively investigate...

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