Professor Dickinson's research is primarily concerned with diversity and inclusion in health care and education, taking a contemporary and historical perspective with the aim of improving the delivery of health care and the patient and student experience.  His unique contributions overlap nursing, nursing home, nursing education and LGBTQ history. Prof. Dickinson is a founding member of the Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality (OPUS) interdisciplinary research group, which was established in 2013 to investigate issues related to sexuality and intimacy in later life.   The group’s work aims to challenge perceptions of older people as necessarily “asexual,” and to better support them as potentially sexual and intimate citizens.   Prof. Dickinson’s particular focus is on older LGBTQ people in nursing homes, whose sexuality/intimacy needs are often not recognised or met.  Having worked in this unique area of research for ten years, he has a strong national and international interdisciplinary reputation. His book, “Curing Queers,” won the 2015 Lavinia Dock Award for exemplary historical research from the American Association for the History of Nursing. It has been adopted into curricula at national and international universities. He has consulted numerous times for television dramas and documentaries that exposed harmful “gay cures;” placing this hitherto neglected subject onto national and international political agendas.

As well as diversity issues in health care, particularly LGBTQ issues, Tommy's other research interests include:

• Care homes

• Nursing education

Tommy is happy to discuss the supervision of projects on any of the above topics. 

Professor Tommy Dickinson is a Professor of Nursing Education and Programme Leader of the Master of Nursing (MNurs) with Registration as an Adult Nurse and a Mental Health Nurse. He is a dual-awarded (adult & mental health) registered nurse. Following a clinical career predominantly in gerontological and social care nursing in the UK and Australia, he moved into an academic role in 2006. He held lectureships at several universities before commencing at King’s in 2016. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Talbott Visiting Professor of Nursing at the University of Virginia in the USA, where he taught, conducted research and worked clinically in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences. Tommy is an Honorary Professor of Nursing at Queen's University Belfast.

Tommy’s unique research contributions overlap nursing practice, nursing history and nursing education. His primary focus is on diversity and inclusion in health care and education taking a contemporary and historical perspective with the aim of improving the delivery of nursing care and education. As a nursing education leader, his work focuses on advancing and promoting inclusive education, and he has acted as an External Advisor on this nationally and internationally. He also has an international research profile in gerontological care with a particular focus on inclusive care for LGBTQ+ older people in care homes.

In 2021, Tommy became the first and only UK-based nurse to be selected for a Fellowship in the USA’s National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of the European Academy of Nursing Science. Tommy is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Nursing Education and was appointed to the Inaugural Editorial Staff of the Journal of American Nurses Association - New York as an International Editorial Advisory Board member.

In 2013, Tommy established the theatre company called Mad 'Ed Theatre. Mad ‘Ed Theatre aims to educate the public and challenge perceptions regarding mental health. The company writes, directs and produces its own original works and has secured external funding for four of its most recent critically recognised plays.

Tommy earned a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Nursing from Bournemouth University, a Master of Science in Nursing with Education from the University of Bradford, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing from the University of Manchester.