Academic & Professional Qualifications

1973  SRN (Registered Nurse – St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London)                 

1975  SCM (State Certified Midwife – Birmingham)                                     

1980  ENB 930 (Care of the dying patient/family – London)                      

1992  MSc (University of Edinburgh)                                                                 

2006  PhD(University of Edinburgh)                                                  

Short Biography

Jo Hockley trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London in the early 1970s and has worked in specialist palliative care for over 20 years.  She has had a passion for disseminating palliative care knowledge within generalist settings. During her career she has set up two hospital-based palliative care teams (one in London and one in Edinburgh).  Since 2000, and as a result of her PhD, Jo has worked exclusively in research and quality improvement initiatives involving the development of palliative care in care homes. In 2008, she set up a Care Home Project Team to reach out to over 100 care homes within which some innovative research projects were undertaken.  Jo has published widely both on the strategic development of hospital-based palliative care teams and palliative care for older people in care homes. She has recently been awarded an OBE for her work to palliative care nursing. Jo returned to Edinburgh in August 2014 and is currently working in the Usher Institute within the Primary Palliative Care Research Group at the University of Edinburgh undertaking a feasibility study for establishing a teaching/research-based care home in collaboration with health and social care.

Recent Research Projects

• A qualitative study to look at student nurse experiences of caring for frail older people with a particular focus on care homes (University of Edinburgh, 2017-2018) Hockley J.

• Six months funding to further the vision for a Teaching/Research-based Care Home Centre of Excellence and Community Engagement at University of Edinburgh (Scottish Government, 2017) Hockley J.

• Travel scholarship to present about ‘quality of life and advanced dementia in care homes’ at the Hammond Care Congress, and to visit teaching nursing homes in Sydney and Adelaide (St Bartholomew’s League of Nurses, 2016) Hockley J.

• To undertake a feasibility study of setting up a Teaching/Research-based Care Home (Astellas, 2016) Hockley J, Murray SA.

• To undertake a scoping exercise into the concept of Teaching/Research-based Care Homes and to visit teaching nursing homes in The Netherlands and Norway (Burdett Nursing Trust, 2015) Hockley J. 

• To support funding for an audit of quality of care in the last month of life as perceived by bereaved families using ‘Family Perception of Last Month of Life’ scale (St Christopher’s Hospice, London, 2012-2013) Hockley J, Kinley J.

• Improving end-of-life care in nursing homes (The Robertson Trust, 2007-2008) Murray SA, Hockley J.