Staff Spotlight on Alice Pearsons

Alice commenced working at Edinburgh Napier University in 2019, working on understanding complex interventions in cardiovascular disease care. She is an adult nurse by background and has a special interest in realist methodology, which is about as far away from working with administrative data as possible!  

Alice became part of the “Health and Social Care” research strand, and is delighted that she has been pulled into the world of data, and is excited about her new project and its potential to influence future nursing policy.

We asked Alice some questions to get an insight into her career and her role as a research fellow:

1. Why did you decide on a career in data? Did you stumble into it, or was it your aim? 

I very much stumbled into data. I was approached by Professor Iain Atherton in 2025 to work on a project using the newly available Scottish Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset (LEO dataset) to investigate what happens to newly graduated nurses' working trajectories. 

2. Can you please summarise your current research?

I am part of the research team who are using the Scottish Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (Scottish LEO) dataset, which links university records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) employment data. This project will explore graduation rates, employment destinations, and retention patterns among nurses.

By identifying when and how graduates enter and remain in clinical practice, and whether outcomes differ by personal characteristics, the findings will inform national nursing workforce planning and have relevance across the wider UK context.

3. My favourite memory of working within ADR Scotland?

After waiting several months for our research to be approved, the day we finally got access to the data was superb!

4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I am an avid cross-stitcher and am working on a piece which has nearly 300,000 stitches. I’m 2 years in and expect I have 2 more years to go on it. I should probably be finishing my PhD thesis, but sewing always wins over thesis.

5. What’s a fun fact about you that many people may not know?

I once got a British Drug Free Power-lifting Junior world record in bench press with a lift of 85kg. I was gutted- as I was aiming for 87.5kg!