Roger Watson

Roger Watson (born 20 November 1955) is a British academic. He is Professor of Nursing, Saint Francis University, Hong Kong.

He is the editor-in-chief of Nurse Education in Practice. Watson was the Founding Chair of the Lancet Commission on Nursing, and a founding member of the Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing & Midwifery. Watson was elected Vice President of the National Conference of University Professors in 2020 and became President in 2022 until 2024. Watson is a First Gulf War veteran having served with 205 General Hospital RAMC(v) (Later 205 Field Hospital now merged with 225 Medical Regiment to form 215 Multirole Medical Regiment).

Education Watson was a registered nurse (St George's Hospital London), holds a BSc in biological sciences from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Sheffield.

Professional life Watson's clinical area is gerontological nursing with a special interest in mealtime and nutritional difficulties of older people with dementia. His research into the alleviation of mealtime difficulty in people with dementia led to the development of the "Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia Scale". Watson is a proponent of the application of Mokken scaling in nursing research and has also contributed to the understanding of the general application of Mokken scaling and the influence of sample size on Mokken scaling parameters.

Watson has held visiting positions in Spain, Slovenia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland and Italy. He served as a member of the sub-panel for Nursing and Midwifery in the UK Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, and in 2014 on the sub-panel for Dentistry, Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy in the UK Research Excellence Framework.

Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Nursing, the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the founding editor of Nursing Open and an Editorial Board Member of the WikiJournal of Medicine. Watson is a frequent contributor to Times Higher Education, The Conversation, The Salisbury Review, The European Conservative and The Daily Sceptic. He has contributed to Catholic Herald and New English Review. Watson is listed in the Academics for Academic Freedom The Banned List.

Awards and recognition

Watson is a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (2009), the American Academy of Nursing (2007), the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (2014), Watson is a Member of the Academia Europaea (2019). Watson was formerly a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (2001-2019; formerly the Institute of Biology), In 2021 Watson was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Maribor, Slovenia.

Watson delivered the Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture in 2001. In 2017 Watson was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. That year, Watson also delivered the annual Elsie Stephenson Memorial Lecture at The University of Edinburgh. In 2022 he was awarded the Margaret Comerford Freda award for Editorial Leadership in Nursing Publication by the International Academy of Nursing Editors. In 2023 Sigma Nursing European Region included Watson in the list celebrating Sigma's centenary by celebrating 100 nurses from the last 100 years in Europe. Watson is included in the Stanford list of top 2% scientists in his field.

Personal life Born to Margaret McCabe and William Morrison Watson In 2018, 2019 and 2020, he was selected as one of the European Top 100 most creative haiku authors. A Roman Catholic, he is married to Deborah Watson (née Yould) and they have eight children and ten grandchildren.