Nicola is a Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences. She is working on studies in the Ageing and Dementia theme of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex. Nicola is a registered nurse, with a background in end-of-life care care and quality improvement work in care home and domiciliary care settings. Her research interests focus on care for people living with frailty, in particular end-of-life care and person-centred approaches.
Nicola is working across two research studies in the Ageing & Dementia theme of the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex. One study is investigating deprescribing for people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment in primary care (STOP-DEM) and the other is developing training to support delivery of person-centred care by domiciliary care workers (CHAT & PLAN). Nicola is leading the systematic review and qualitative study components of STOP-DEM and will be leading the qualitative study to refine the training materials for CHAT & PLAN.
Nicola completed the NHS Insights Prioritisation Programme (NIPP) project for Wessex with colleagues from the Wessex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) in 2023. This work investigated digital remote monitoring of older people with frailty, included several separate work packages, and was coordinated by Nicola.
Nicola commenced work at the University of Southampton in June 2021, following completion of a PhD, having previously worked as a nurse in the NHS and independent hospices for more than twenty years. Since joining the university, she has worked on projects for the Applied Research Collaboration Wessex, including a joint project with Wessex Academic Health Science Network.
She qualified as a registered nurse at the University of Nottingham. Her clinical career was in the fields of palliative and end-of-life care and care of older people. She established and led a palliative care education team for care homes provided by a hospice. She also set up and led an integrated CCG and local authority quality team supporting care homes and domiciliary care providers. Her PhD was an ethnography of multi-professional involvement in the advance care planning process in two nursing homes.