Professor Rebecca Lawton

Professor, Psychology of Healthcare, University of Leeds/Director, Yorkshire Quality and Safety Research Group and NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration

Email: r.j.lawton@leeds.ac.uk
Tel: 0113 3435715 / 01274 383465
Twitter: @LawtonRebecca

Background
Rebecca Lawton is Professor in Psychology of Healthcare at the University of Leeds. Since 2009 Rebecca has held a joint post at Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust where she leads the YQSR Group. Rebecca is Director of the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration funded by the NIHR.

Rebecca graduated from University of Nottingham with a BA in Psychology in 1991. In 1994 Rebecca was awarded a PhD from the University of Manchester, the culmination of an ESRC (Case) studentship working with Professor James Reason and investigating the role of procedural violations in railway accidents. Rebecca stayed at Manchester, working as a Research Fellow on two research projects; the first, a Department for Transport funded project investigating the psychological predictors of speeding while driving and the second, an ESRC funded project, investigating the attitudes and behaviour of healthcare professionals to the increasing regulation of their work. In 1999 Rebecca took up a post at the University of Leeds as a lecturer and was later promoted to Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology, before her promotion to Professor in 2012. Rebecca has attracted research funding from the NIHR, ESRC, MRC, The Health Foundation, British Academy and Bupa Foundation and has published over 180 peer reviewed articles.

Research interests
Rebecca’s broad research interest is the application of psychological theory to improving health and healthcare services. More specifically, Rebecca carries out research on human factors and patient safety, patient involvement in patient safety, the implementation of safety innovations and wellbeing of the healthcare workforce. She also delivers more traditional health psychology research investigating determinants of health risk behaviours and the evaluation of interventions to improve lifestyle behaviours.

Recent Funding Awarded

For a full list click here

Recent Publications

Heyhoe J, Lawton R. Social emotion and patient safety: an important and understudied intersection. BMJ quality & safety. 2020:bmjqs-2019-010795

Albutt A, O’Hara J, Conner M, Lawton R. Can Routinely Collected, Patient-Reported Wellness Predict National Early Warning Scores? A Multilevel Modeling Approach. Journal of patient safety. 2020 Feb 21; 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000672

McHugh SK, Lawton R, O’Hara JK, Sheard L. Does team reflexivity impact teamwork and communication in interprofessional hospital-based healthcare teams? A systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMJ quality & safety. 2020 Jan 7.

Ramsey L, Sheard L, Lawton R, O Hara J. How do healthcare staff respond to patient experience feedback online? A typology of responses published on Care Opinion. Patient Experience Journal. 2019;6(2):42-50

Hughes L, Sheard L, Pinkney L, Lawton RL. Excellence in elective hip and knee surgery: what does it look like? A positive deviance approach. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2019 Sep 7:1355819619867350

Lawton R, Johnson J, Janes G, Foy R, Simms-Ellis R. Supporting doctors who make mistakes. BMJ. 2019 May 17;365:l2161.

Mills T, Lawton R, Sheard L. Improving Patient Experience in Hospital Settings: Assessing the Role of Toolkits and Action Research Through a Process Evaluation of a Complex Intervention. Qualitative health research. 2019 Jun 16:1049732319855960.

Marsh C, Peacock R, Sheard L, Hughes L, Lawton R. Patient experience feedback in UK hospitals: What types are available and what are their potential roles in quality improvement (QI)? Health Expect. 2019 Apr 23. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12885

Mills T, Lawton R, Sheard L. Advancing complexity science in healthcare research: the logic of logic models. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2019 Mar 12;19(1):55

Lawton R, Robinson O, Harrison R, Mason S, Conner M, Wilson B. Are more experienced clinicians better able to tolerate uncertainty and manage risks? A vignette study of doctors in three NHS emergency departments in England. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2019:bmjqs-2018-008390

Baxter R, Taylor N, Kellar I, Lawton R. A qualitative positive deviance study to explore exceptionally safe care on medical wards for older people. BMJ quality & safety. 2019 Feb 13

Berzins K, Baker J, Brown M, Lawton R. 2018. A cross-sectional survey of mental health service users’, carers’ and professionals’ priorities for patient safety in the United Kingdom. Health Expectations. 21(6), pp. 1085-1094

O’Hara JK, Reynolds C, Moore S, Armitage G, Sheard L, Marsh C, Watt I, Wright J, Lawton R. 2018. What can patients tell us about the quality and safety of hospital care? Findings from a UK multicentre survey study. BMJ Quality and Safety. 27(9), pp. 673-682

O’Hara JK, Grasic K, Gutacker N, Street A, Foy R, Thompson C, Wright J, Lawton R. 2018. Identifying positive deviants in healthcare quality and safety: a mixed methods study. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 111(8), pp. 276-291

O’Hara JK, Grasic K, Gutacker N, Street A, Foy R, Thompson C, Wright J, Lawton R. 2018. Identifying positive deviants in healthcare quality and safety: a mixed methods study. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 111(8), pp. 276-291

Lawton R. 2018. It Ain’t What You Do (But the Way That You Do It): Will Safety II Transform the Way We Do Patient Safety; Comment on “False Dawns and New Horizons in Patient Safety Research and Practice”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 7(7), pp. 659-661

Mushtaq F, O’Driscoll C, Smith FCT, Wilkins D, Kapur N, Lawton R. 2018. Contributory factors in surgical incidents as delineated by a confidential reporting system. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 100(5), pp. 401-405

Heyhoe J, Reynolds C, Dunning A, Johnson O, Howat A, Lawton R. 2018. Patient involvement in diagnosing cancer in primary care: a systematic review of current interventions. British Journal of Genera

Baxter R, Taylor N, Kellar I, Pye V, Mohammed MA, Lawton R. 2018. Identifying positively deviant elderly medical wards using routinely collected NHS Safety Thermometer data: an observational study.. BMJ Open. 8(2)

Armitage G, Moore S, Reynolds C, Laloë P-A, Coulson C, McEachan R, Lawton R, Watt I, Wright J, O’Hara J. 2018. Patient-reported safety incidents as a new source of patient safety data: an exploratory comparative study in an acute hospital in England. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 23(1), pp. 36-43

Glidewell L, Willis TA, Petty D, Lawton R, McEachen RRC, Ingleson E, Heudtlass P, Davies A, Jamieson T, Hunter C, Hartley S, Gray-Burrows K, Clamp S, Carder P, Alderson S, Farrin AJ, Foy R. 2018. To what extent can behaviour change techniques be identified within an adaptable implementation package for primary care? A prospective directed content analysis. Implementation Science. 13

Conner M, Grogan S, Simms-Ellis R, Flett K, Sykes-Muskett B, Cowap L, Lawton R, Armitage CJ, Meads D, Torgerson C, West R, Siddiqi K. 2018. Do Electronic Cigarettes Increase Cigarette Smoking in UK Adolescents? Evidence from a 12-month Prospective Study. Tobacco Control. 27(4), pp. 365-372

For a full list of publications click here