Dr Kath Williamson

Honorary Research Fellow (School of Health & Wellbeing)

email: Kath.Williamson@glasgow.ac.uk

School of Health and Wellbeing, Clarice Pears Building, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8TB

Biography

I am a registered nurse, combining clinical practice with expertise in mixed methods research in primary health and social care.

My CSO Early Postdoctoral Fellowship focusses on scoping out access to weight management by housebound people living with obesity. As the first NMAHP (Nurse, Midwife or Allied Health Professional) to receive this Fellowship, I am delighted to be combining research with an innovative role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for Bariatric Care (Community). This is based in a Health and Social Care partnership, supporting health and social care colleagues to care for people with bariatric care needs. My aim is to work in close collaboration with staff, people living with obesity and their families to develop safe, effective and equitable obesity care services, particularly for those who are housebound.

I completed a part-time mixed-methods PhD at the University of Glasgow focussed on people living with severe obesity, exploring community service usage and people’s lived experience of services.

The motivation to do research initially came directly from my clinical practice, as a District Nurse in NHS Lothian, caring for people with severe obesity and the lack of evidence to guide care. Latterly, I specialised in training and advising around manual handling with social care services, giving me an excellent understanding of the social care context.

Education:

BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh (1995), Registered General Nurse
BSc Community Health Nursing (District Nursing), Specialist Practitioner – District Nursing, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh (1999)
MSc Weight Management, University of Chester (2015)
PhD, University of Glasgow (2023)

Links to my Google Scholar and ORCiD pages.

Research interests

As a community nurse, I am interested in non-medical community services and the populations that they serve, that are often under-served by research. Thus, my research focuses on these areas, with a specific interest in obesity:

under-evidenced areas such as district nursing, occupational therapy, social care, informal carers, and equipment and adaptations in community settings
care of people living with obesity, including access to weight management and weight stigma
bariatric care needs (aside from surgery) e.g. manual handling, tissue viability, equipment
care of people who are housebound and access to services
accessing and using real-world health and social care data and data linkage
NMAHP (Nurse, Midwife or Allied Health Professional) research capacity building