Katie Featherstone has tied up hair and is wearing a patterned grey jacket and beige top.

Professor Katie Featherstone

Professor of Sociology and Medicine, and Director of the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory

Katie Featherstone is Professor of Sociology and Medicine, and Director of the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of West London.

Katie’s research programme responds to a pressing contemporary NHS challenge: the need to improve the quality and humanity of care that people living with dementia receive during an acute hospital admission.

Katie’s innovative programme utilises sociology and ethnography to examine institutional cultures of care and our understandings of the organisation, and delivery of care at the bedside. Her studies have been funded by NIHR have examined the management of refusal of care and of continence care aspects of bedside care identified by people living with dementia, carers and families, and ward staff as priority areas, where evidence is needed to improve care.

This body of work is currently informing the development of low-cost interventions, training, and education for ward staff, with her work already having an impact within public policy, NHS Health Boards and Trusts, national media, and public discourse. Katie is currently collaborating with Public Health Wales to deliver evidence-informed approaches to dementia training and professional education to frontline staff across all hospitals in Wales. Katie also collaborates with Dementia UK and Alzheimer’s Research UK to support research capacity building and dementia education.

Current grants in submission include studies examining the everyday use of restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia and the assessment, diagnosis and disclosure of dementia during a hospital admission.

  • Qualifications

    PhD, Medical Research Council Studentship award holder. Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol. 

  • Memberships

    Member of the Advisory Group on Dementia
    Member of the Dementia Partners National Steering Group to Welsh Assembly Government
    Membership of the Dementia-Friendly Hospital Charter in Wales Steering Group
    Member of the NIHR Dementias Portfolio Development Group
    Member of the European research network Interdem

Research

See Professor Katie Featherstone's publications list in the UWL Repository.

Katie has a track-record of leading interdisciplinary teams as PI and has delivered a portfolio of research in the field of dementia, funded by NIHR HS&DR:

  • 2022-2024: Understanding the everyday use of restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia during a hospital admission: reducing inappropriate use, identifying good practice and alternative approaches to reduce risk and improve care. NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream £1,053,221.60 (NIHR132903: in submission, Featherstone PI).
  • 2017-2021: Understanding continence practices in acute settings for people with dementia in acute hospital settings: raising awareness and improving care (NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream 15/136/67) £508,000 (Featherstone PI).
  • 2015-2017: Investigating the management of refusal of care in people with dementia admitted to hospital with an acute condition (NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream 13/10/80) £447,000 (Featherstone PI).
  • Research and publications

    Monographs

    Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A., 2020. Wandering the Wards: An Ethnography of Hospital Care and its Consequences for People Living with Dementia. Routledge Studies in Health and Medical Anthropology.  

    Featherstone K, Atkinson P. (2012) Creating Conditions: The Making and Remaking of a Genetic Condition. Oxford: Routledge. 

    Featherstone K, Atkinson P, Bharadwaj A, Clarke AJ. (2006) Risky Relations: Family and kinship in the era of new genetics. Oxford: Berg 

    Refereed journal articles

    Edwards, D., Harden, J., Jones, A., Featherstone, K. Strategies to inform innovations in continence care for people living with dementia in the acute hospital setting: A mixed methods narrative synthesis review. Systematic Reviews.  

    Boddington, P., Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A., 2020. Presentation of the clothed self on the hospital ward: an ethnographic account of perceptual attention and implications for the personhood of people living with dementia. Medical Humanities.  

    Featherstone, K., Boddington, P. and Northcott, A., 2020. Using Signs and Symbols to Label Hospital Patients with a Dementia Diagnosis: Help or Hindrance to Care? Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, 10(1), pp.49-61. 

    Featherstone, K., Bridges, J., and Northcott, A. 2019. Routines of resistance: the care of people living with dementia in acute hospital wards. International Journal of Nursing Studies.  

    Featherstone, K., Northcott, A., Harden, J., Harrison Dening, K., Tope, R., Bale, S. and Bridges, J., 2019. Refusal and resistance to care by people living with dementia being cared for within acute hospital wards: an ethnographic study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 7(11), pp.1-112. 

    Cramer, H., Hughes, J., Johnson, R., Evans, M., Deaton, C., Timmis, A., Hemingway, H., Feder, G. and Featherstone, K., 2018. ‘Who does this patient belong to?’ Boundary work and the re/making of (NSTEMI) heart attack patients. Sociology of Health & Illness. Vol. xx No. xx 2018 ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 1-26 doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12778  

    Boddington, P. and Featherstone, K. 2018. The canary in the coal mine: Continence care for people with dementia in acute hospital wards as a crisis of dehumanization. Bioethics, 32(4), pp.251-260.  

    Lucy Webster, et al, 2017. A Core Outcome Set for Disease Modification Trials in Mild-To-Moderate Dementia: A Systematic Review And Consensus Recommendations. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(7), pp.P1261-P1262.  

    Atkinson PA, Featherstone K, Gregory M. (2013) Kinscapes, Genescapes & Timescapes: Families Living With Genetic Risk Sociology of Health and Illness, November Vol 35 (8) p1227-1241. 

    Lewis J, Atkinson P, Harrington J, Featherstone K. (2012) Representation and Practical Accomplishment in the Laboratory: When is an Animal Model Good-Enough? Sociology. 

    Arribas-Ayllon M, Bartlett A, Featherstone K. Complexity and accountability: the witches' brew of psychiatric genetics. Social Studies of Science Social Studies of Science, August 40 (4) 2010.  

    Arribas-Ayllon M, Featherstone K, Atkinson P. The practical ethics of genetic responsibility: Non-disclosure and the autonomy of affect. Social Theory and Health (2011) 9, 3–23.  

    Somerville C, Featherstone K, Hemingway H, Timmis A, Feder G. Performing stable angina pectoris: an ethnographic study Social Science and Medicine Volume 66, Issue 7, April 2008, 1497-1508. 

    Latimer J, Featherstone K, Atkinson P, Clarke AJ, Shaw A. (2006) Rebirthing the clinic: the interaction of clinical judgement and molecular technology in the production of genetic science. Science, Technology and Human Values; 31: 599-630. 

    Featherstone K, Latimer J, Atkinson P, Pilz D, Clarke AJ. (2005) Dysmorphology and the spectacle of the clinic. Sociology of Health and Illness; 27: 5, 551-574. 

    Clarke A, Richards M, Kerzin-storrar L, Halliday J, Young MA, Simpson S, Featherstone K, Forrest K. (2005) Genetic professionals’ report of non-disclosure of genetic risk information within families. European Journal of Human Genetics; 13, 556-562.   

    Shaw A, Latimer J, Atkinson P, Featherstone K. (2003) Surveying slides: Clinical perception and clinical judgement in the construction of a genetic diagnosis. New Genetics and Society; 22, 1, 3-19.  

    Featherstone K, Donovan JL. (2002) ‘Why don’t they tell me straight, why allocate it?’ The struggle to make sense of participation in a randomised controlled trial. Social Science and Medicine; 55, 709-719.  

    Featherstone K, Donovan JL. Random allocation or allocation at random? Patients’ perspectives of participation in a randomised controlled trial. BMJ; 1998; 317,1177-1184. 

    Book chapters

    Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A. The care of people living with dementia in the acute hospital setting. (2019) In Karen Harrison-Dening (ed) The social and organisational context of frontline care Evidence-Based Practice in Dementia for Nurses and Nursing Students. London: Jessica Kinglsey.  

    Featherstone K, Gregory M, Atkinson P. The moral and sentimental work of the clinic: the case of dysmorphology. (2006) In Paul Atkinson, Peter Glasner and Helen Greenslade (eds), New Genetics, New Identities. London: Routledge. 

    Featherstone K, Donovan JL. Random allocation or allocation at random? Patients’ perspectives of participation in a randomised controlled trial. (2004) In Bury M and Gabe J (eds) The Sociology of Health and illness: A reader. London: Routledge. 

  • Research degree supervision

    Katie has expertise in supporting doctoral students. As Director of Postgraduate Studies (Research), School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University (2008-2014), the programme was ranked by postgraduate students as one of the top 4 programmes across the university, with a strong research culture and high levels of student satisfaction (over 90%). 

    Katie has delivered doctoral training modules in Protocol Development and Preparation; Advanced Qualitative Research Methods; and Social Theory and Critical enquiry in Practice. 

    She has a personal doctoral supervision success rate of 100% doctoral completion (14), with expertise in the supervision of nurses, allied health professionals, and international students: 

    • Cindy Sylvia (International student, USA) Nurses in Industry: A Study of Professional Ecology. Doctorate awarded 2018. 
    • Nikki West (Florence Nightingale Foundation studentship) The long-term impact of risk-reducing surgery on women who are at high risk of breast cancer (BRACA1 and BRACA2) Doctorate awarded 2017. 
    • Catherine Dunn (RCBC Studentship) Disclosure of erectile dysfunction: stigma, sexuality and ageing in the clinic. Doctorate awarded 2015. 
    • Amie Hodges (Florence Nightingale Foundation studentship) An exploration of the experiences of the sibling in the chronic illness trajectory. Doctorate awarded (minor corrections) 2015. 
    • Areej Haitham (International Student: King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia) Hidden voices: Postpartum women, health beliefs and their use of on-line forums in Saudi Arabia. Doctorate awarded 2015.  
    • Shema Ammer (International student, SA) A pilot intervention to support young people with diabetes. Doctorate awarded 2015. 
    • Mandayachepa Nyando (International Student: Malawi Government) Invisible women: carers of children living with HIV and AIDS in rural Malawi. Doctorate awarded 2015.  
    • Nicola Evans (Health Foundation studentship) Change in an NHS mental health Outpatient Service: an ethnography. Doctorate awarded 2014. 
    • Jessica Baillie (RCBC Studentship) Perspectives on peritoneal dialysis: an ethnography of the management of health technologies within the home. Doctorate awarded 2013. 
    • Yupares Payaprom (International student: Royal Thai Embassy) Perceptions of influenza and uptake of vaccination amongst high-risk Thai elderly people. Doctorate awarded 2011. 
    • Victoria Marke (CU studentship) PTSD and emotional affect in patients admitted with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). Doctorate awarded 2010. 
    • Jackie Hughes (ESRC Studentship) After Genetics – Huntington’s disease, local data, global neuroscience. Doctorate awarded 2010. 
    • Rebecca Dimond (ESRC Studentship) The social construction of 22q11 deletion syndrome. Doctorate awarded 2010. 
    • Amy Lloyd (CU studentship) The impact of antenatal screening and decision making for women with a child with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Doctorate awarded December 2009. 

    I welcome enquiries from potential applicants working in the field of dementia, with a focus on the acute setting.