NIHR School for Primary Care Research Fellow

Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research

Nicola is a health services researcher based in the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care at the University of Manchester with research interests in understanding patient experience. Nicola's NIHR SPCR Launching Fellowship 2020 enabled her to complete some early intervention work with significant public involvement exploring how best to utilise patient reported outcome measure (PROM) feedback in older people with multiple long-term conditions in primary care. This research is informing further research to co-produce a new intervention with her public partners as co-applicants with a team of empowerment and implementation experts. 

Nicola's doctoral research involved the understanding and measurement of empowerment in patients with long-term conditions in primary care. She led on the development and preliminary validation of the Empowerment Scale (ES) - a patient reported outcome measure (PROM) freely available to use, and is her most cited work to date with worldwide impact. Her PROM has recieved huge International research and knowledge transfer since it was first preliminary validated in a sample of older people with multiple long-term conditions in the United Kingdom. Nicola's PROM has now been cross-culturally validated globally with different long-term condition populations, and 11 languages:

• Spain: elderly patients with heart failure
• Portugal: elderly patients with long-term conditions
• Canada (Quebec): elderly patients with myotonic dystrophy
• United States: obese, African adolescents and parents in underserved populations
• Belgium, Sweden and Denmark: adolescents with congenital heart disease
• China: elderly patients with long-term conditions

Scale reduction and refinement development work is currently underway. This study is using Rasch Analysis, and cognitive interviewing techniques, to shorten and refine the items in the 47-item ES, and to test it's psychometric properies in a UK empowerment feasability study to refine the measurement properties of the ES for acceptable future use in health interventions and trials.

Chair to Proportionate Review University Research Ethics Commitee

Joint Lead for Social Responsibility for the Division

Academic advisor, mentor and mentee

Journal reviewer to Health Expectations, BMC Series, BMJ Open, BJGP

• Professor Caroline Sanders, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care
• Dr Sudeh Cheraghi-Sohi, Divisin of Population Health , Health Services Research and Primary Care
• Professor Peter Bower, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care 
• Dr Brian McMillan, Divison of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care
• Professor William Dixon, Divison of Musculoskeletal & Dermatological Sciences
• Professor John McBeth, Division of Musculoskeletal & Dermatological Sciences
• Professor Karina Lovell, Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
• Professor Penny Bee, Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
• Dr Peter Coventry, Health Sciences, University of York
• Professor Carolyn Chew Graham, Primary Care Health Sciences, Keele University
• Professor Joanne Protheroe, Primary Care Health Sciences, Keele University

Proportionate University Research Ethics Committee Chair

Division Social Responsibility Joint Lead

NIHR Academy member

Society for Academy Primary Care member and mentee

MRC Hub for Trials member

Regional Representative for North West UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA)

Health services research

Health psychology

Psychometric

Scale development

Systematic review

Mixed method

Randomised controlled trial

SWAT (study-within-a-trial)

Patient and public involvement

Co-production

Ethics and research governance

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester

Health Psychology (MSc with Distinction, Stage 1, BPS accredited), Staffordshire University

Psychology with Art (BA Degree with Honours, BPS accredited), University of Chester