Beth Nichol

About

Beth completed a BSc in Psychology at Newcastle University, followed by a MSc in Health Psychology at Northumbria University. Throughout her studies, Beth was driven by curiosity and the passion of attaining new knowledge, leading her to pursue a PhD at Northumbria University. However, this motivator quickly became secondary to the desire to exert a positive impact on population health. From this point forward, the ‘so what?’ of research has driven Beth’s subsequent career pathway, research interests, and approaches to research. For example, Beth is a staunch pragmatist which often leads her to evidence synthesis and mixed methods approaches. 

Beth’s main research experience centers around Making Every Contact Count (MECC), a person-centred approach to behaviour change conversations. Beth’s initial interest in MECC research was its population level approach to disease prevention, which is a focus of Beth’s research portfolio. However, what has maintained Beth’s interest is a drive to understand the implementation of MECC across the NHS for almost a decade, despite very little evidence to support outcomes relating to disease prevention. This drives Beth to ensure that what is being implemented is evidence-based and does not have unintended adverse consequences. Given the increasing implementation of MECC outside of healthcare settings, Beth’s PhD explored the application of MECC within voluntary and community settings. Her work mainly involved qualitative exploration including application of the behaviour change wheel to inform recommendations for practice and has resulted in five published papers (with the sixth under review). She has also been involved in numerous research projects that have explored the application of MECC, including an evaluation of MECC implementation in the region and an evaluation of the train the trainer model to deliver MECC training at scale. The Newcastle MECC Research Group work closely with the Regional Delivering MECC at Scale Coordinator, and subsequently their research has informed the implementation of MECC within the region and beyond.  

Beth also recognises policy change as a fundamental pathway for positive impact of her research on population health. Subsequently, Beth is proud to have worked at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences since August 2024. She has been involved in a range of projects, including rapid responsive work to produce policy briefs for policy partners. She continues this role part time alongside her Fellowship, recognising the strength of the Policy Research Unit in its potential to translate MECC research into policy change. To supplement this goal, Beth is currently undergoing a competitively awarded 12-month fellowship in Newcastle University’s Policy Academy.  

Additionally, Beth utilises patient and public involvement and engagement as a key strategy for creating long-term positive impact. She has experienced how involving the public in research and gaining their input has ensured that the outputs of research are relevant and useful for the people they aim to serve. For example, her first ever Research Assistant role was to coordinate the patient and public involvement and engagement for a study that was looking to develop early detection of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, using machine learning and 3D scans of the retina. Through involving the public, it was identified that if such a tool did become available, there might be mixed acceptability as not everyone might want to be informed if they were going to develop a neurogenerative disease. This prompted Beth to lead a hypothetical scenario study to explore the acceptability and predictors of acceptability amongst people who might be offered the tool in the future.  

The overwhelming message from Beth’s MECC research so far is that MECC continues to be implemented within healthcare settings and beyond, despite limited evidence to support its effectiveness. Her PhD work also highlighted the potential of voluntary and community settings for MECC delivery, given the close relationships and understanding between service providers and users. Therefore, Beth’s Three Schools Post-doctoral Launching Fellowship will provide her with the opportunity to prepare for an evaluation of the effectiveness of MECC when delivered within voluntary and community settings. Within her fellowship, Beth also plans to develop her skills around trial design and analysis, which will prepare her for a career in prevention research.  

Additionally, Beth is interested in the potential of psychosocial interventions, for example the potential of volunteering to increase the health and wellbeing of volunteers. She is committed to exploring the potential of such interventions for disease prevention within future research. 

 Beth is also passionate about fostering a positive culture of early career researchers, to ensure retainment of talent in academia. Thus, Beth helps to organise the ‘early career researcher learning lunches’ within her Institute at Newcastle University, which offers a space for researchers to share learning and experiences, to foster a supportive cohort. Throughout her Fellowship, Beth hopes to continue to foster a supportive culture through engagement with ResNet, SPHR’s early career network.