Dr Beth Nichol

Research Fellow

School: Communities and Education

I am a Research Fellow at Northumbria University, holding a Fellowship from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Three Schools’ Prevention programme. I focus on pragmatic and applied research to drive real-world impact through collaborating with partners in policy and practice. I have a background in Health Psychology and am most interested in understanding how complex interventions work, so that they can be optimised to improve public health and wellbeing. I also work part-time at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences, which facilitates collaboration with policy partners.

My current research interests are around driving primary prevention (e.g. through boosting cervical screening and implementing Making Every Contact Count), utilising voluntary and community settings to improve population health and wellbeing, encouraging equitable volunteering, and exploring public acceptability of novel interventions.

I am experienced in systematic and umbrella review methodologies, qualitative and mixed methods approaches, and applying behavioural science theory. More recently, I have become passionate about realist thinking and applying realist evaluation and synthesis to evaluate complex interventions and gain shared learning across interventions. I have experience in undergraduate teaching and supervision and am interested in supervising postgraduate research.

I am a member of the Newcastle MECC research group, the European Health Psychology Society, and a full member of the British Psychological Society.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Pathways to nursing: A qualitative exploration of the education and training decision-making of nursing students, McGowan, L., Nichol, B., McKenzie, M., Chater, A., Vlaev, I., Grimani, A. 1 Dec 2025, In: International Journal of Nursing Studies
A critical commentary of the paradoxical ‘success’ of Making Every Contact Count (MECC), Nichol, B., Wilson, R., Rodrigues, A., Haighton, C. 31 Dec 2025, In: Critical Public Health
Delivering, implementing and receiving an enhanced smoking cessation service for people with severe mental illness in the North East and North Cumbria: A mixed-methods study of barriers and facilitators, Hoult, L., Nichol, B., Haighton, C., McIlvenna, R., Kyei-Sarpong, J., Sharrock, R., Rodrigues, A. 27 Oct 2025
Home care and alcohol use: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of domiciliary carers' perspectives on alcohol use for older adults in their care, Steer, M., Haighton, C., Nichol, B. 20 May 2025, NIHR School for Social Care Research, York, National Institute for Health Research