Dr Nicola Clibbens

Joint Clinical Academic Associate Professor

Department: Nursing, Midwifery & Health

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Nicola has expertise in health services research focused on acute and crisis mental health. She has an interest in research focused on improving outcomes in community crisis care, development of interventions in crisis and intensive home treatment and imporving the experiences of people during a crisis and their family and friends.

Nicola is experienced with involving people with lived experience in developing research ideas and in delivering high quality studies as research partners.

Nicola works across Northumbria University and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust to deliver high qaulity research and support the development of the nursing contribution to research. Nicola has engaged with a range of health, social care and voluntary sector partners to deliver research.

Nicola has expertise in realist methods, qualitative research, mixed method synthesis and evidence synthesis.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
An exploration of health professionals' views of diet intervention for psychosis management, Williamson, K., Baker, J., Clibbens, N. Jun 2025, In: International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
Effectiveness of Physical Activity Interventions on Acute Inpatient Mental Health Units on Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Graham, M., Hodgson, P., Fleming, L., Innerd, A., Clibbens, N., Hope, W., Aston, L., Glascott, M. Feb 2025, In: International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
Implementation of the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s national strategy for nursing research in mental health service provider organisations: A mixed-methods study, Green, J., Byrne, I., Clibbens, N., Black, C., Dickens, G. 21 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
Mechanisms to support interventions involving the police when responding to persons experiencing a mental health crisis: A realist review, Redgate, S., Clibbens, N., Haighton, C., Dalkin, S., Bate, A., Girling, M., McCarthy, S., Eagles, T., Gray, J., McKinnon, I. 10 May 2025, In: Health & Social Care in the Community
Physical activity following discharge from inpatient adult mental health settings: Interest-holder perspectives, Hodgson, P., Glascott, M., Hope, W., Aston, L., Clibbens, N., Flemming, L., Innerd, A., Graham, M. 3 Jul 2025, In: Mental Health and Physical Activity
Realist research in nursing: an introduction to seeing beyond ‘what works’, Howe, J., Harrison, M., Fitzgerald, I., Clibbens, N. 19 Jun 2025, In: Evidence-Based Nursing
Realist reviews: making sense of evidence for complex nursing interventions, Fitzgerald, I., Harrison, M., Clibbens, N., Howe, J. 12 Jun 2025, In: Evidence-Based Nursing
Accurate reporting of maternal suicide data enables development of targeted suicide prevention interventions, Clibbens, N., Rebair, A. 12 Jun 2024, In: Evidence-based nursing
Implementation of the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s national strategy for nursing research in mental health service provider organisations: A survey and documentary analysis of nurse leadership roles and related strategies, Clibbens, N., Dickens, G., Green, J., Byrne, I., Black, C. 28 May 2024
Involving stakeholders with lived and professional experience in a realist review of community mental health crisis services: a commentary, Ashman, M., Clibbens, N., Thompson, J., Gilburt, H., Thompson, E., Khalid, Y. 18 Dec 2024, In: Research Involvement and Engagement

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Evaluation of multi-agency education for mental health telephone triage, Clibbens, N. (Principal Investigator), Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, 01/04/25 - 01/03/26, £20,000.00
Police involvement in interagency crisis mental health first response pathways in England: A realist and cost consequence analysis (PIONEER-MH), Clibbens, N. (Principal Investigator), National Institute for Health Research, 01/04/25 - 30/11/27, £781,508.00
Jay’s study: Developing tailored implementation of a personalised safety planning toolkit for adults experiencing self-harm and suicidality, Clibbens, N. (Principal Investigator), National Institute for Health Research, 01/09/24 - 02/03/26, £25,582.00
DIVERT: Co-producing a distress tolerance intervention to reduce self-harm episodes in young people, Clibbens, N. (Principal Investigator), National Institute for Health Research, 01/04/24 - 30/06/25, £2,940.00