Dr Joanne Atkinson

Head Of Department

Department: Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing

Joanne Atkinson is Head of Department for Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing. Joanne has been in leadership roles within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences since 2010. She is an expert in palliative and end of life care, following a career in this sphere of practice and she continues to work across these disciplines at a regional, national and international level. She has a wealth of external experience in multi-professional health and social care workforce development.

Building on her doctoral studies, her research in palliative and end of life care is varied, collaborative and interdisciplinary. Specifically, her work has sought to move from the biomedical dominated model to understanding death and dying in it’s broadest social, historical and cultural contexts. Particularly, the discourses of death and dying underpin Joanne’s approach to research. Joanne is focused on building research capacity in this sector and has therefore been engaged in consultancy with national charitable organisations.

She is also a Trustee for a national cancer charity called mynewhair, leading the charity from a small-scale not-for-profit organisation into an international registered charity. Joanne is recognised as an expert in chemotherapy-induced hair loss and regularly invited to speak internationally. She is also on the ethics committee at St Cuthbert’s hospice.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Development and Validation of the Family and Community Nursing Advanced Practice Scale, Unsworth, J., Oldman, C., Atkinson, J., Comparcini, D., Simonetti, V., Cicolini, G., Mikkonen, K., Tomietto, M. 20 Jan 2025, In: Journal of Clinical Nursing
Make Politics Work for Us: A Common Sense pathway to democracy that delivers, Johnson, E., Neal, C., Stark, G., Duffy, S., Robson, I., Reed, H., Meehan, P., Warnock, C., Atkinson, J., Nettle, D., Johnson, M. 16 Jan 2025
‘People ring because they’re frightened’: Findings from a Realist Evaluation on the Impact of Timely Responsive Care at Home at the End of Life, McEwan, K., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Bate, A., Jeffery, C., Dalkin, S. 23 Jun 2025, In: BMC Palliative Care
Delivering Regional Renewal: Public support for bold change in North East transport policy, Thew, A., Littlefair, D., Stark, G., Robson, I., Atkinson, J., Reed, H., Johnson, E., Nettle, D., Johnson, M. 14 Nov 2024
‘For Want of a Nail’: developing a transparent approach to retroduction and early initial programme theory development in a realist evaluation of community end of life care services, McEwan, K., Girling, M., Bate, A., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Dalkin, S. 3 Jul 2024, In: International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Providing ‘professionalism with compassion’; how the time for caring communication can improve experiences at the end-of-life at home, findings from a realist evaluation, McEwan, K., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Bate, A., Jeffery, C., Dalkin, S. 21 Dec 2024, In: BMC Palliative Care
Spend to Save Britain: A Common Sense Approach to the 2024 Budget, Johnson, E., Stark, G., Duffy, S., Moseley, L., Robson, I., Atkinson, J., Wilkinson, R., Pickett, K., Nettle, D., Johnson, M., Reed, H. 31 Oct 2024
Transforming public health: Common Sense Principles for Radical Prevention Funds, Johnson, E., Stark, G., Duffy, S., Reed, H., Robson, I., Atkinson, J., Wilkinson, R., Nettle, D., Johnson, M. 10 Dec 2024
Why patients in specialist palliative care in-patient settings are at high risk of falls and falls-related harm: A realist synthesis, Louise Forrow, H., Lhussier, M., Scott, J., Atkinson, J. 1 Dec 2022, In: Palliative Medicine
An Integrative Review Exploring Psycho-Social Impacts and Therapeutic Interventions for Parent Caregivers of Young People Living with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, Porteous, D., Davies, B., English, C., Atkinson, J. 11 Mar 2021, In: Children

PGR Supervision

Zoe Booth 'Discussing preferred place of death during the final hospital admission; exploring the experience of these discussions from the perspective of bereaved informal care givers and staff. Start Date: 01/10/2020