Nicola Gale
Biographic Data
| ID | 92466 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicola Gale |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicola |
| FAMILY NAME | Gale |
| SIGNATURE | GALE N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5295-8841 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Addressing digital exclusion to improve access to HIV and viral hepatitis care for people who experience criminalization
People who experience criminalization, such as those who use drugs, are incarcerated, and are affected by homelessness, have a high prevalence of HIV and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and low treatment uptake in British Columbia. Barriers to care include unreliable means of maintaining contact with healthcare providers. To reduce these barriers, the Test, Link, Call (TLC) Project provides cell phones and peer health mentors to support acce…
Tackling wicked problems through street-level diplomacy
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be considered a wicked problem because the phenomenon is characterised by multiple, interdependent factors, functioning within ostensibly intractable dynamics. Collaborative or networked governance is often seen as the most appropriate approach to address wicked problems, and there is often scepticism regarding the scalability of micro-level local solutions contributing to neglect in the literature of the role t…
Randomised controlled trial testing effectiveness of feedback about lung age or exhaled CO combined with very brief advice for smoking cessation compared to very brief advice alone in North Macedonia
The trial was registered at http://www.isrctn.com (ISRCTN54228638) on the 07/09/2018
Women's Experience of Depressive Symptoms While Working From Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in workplace practices as social distancing requirements meant that people were asked to work from home where possible to avoid unnecessary contact. Concerns have been raised about the effects of the pandemic on mental health and, in particular, the effects of social distancing on employed women's mental health. In this study, we explore the experiences of working women during the initial stages of…
Using Situated Interviews to Engage Frail Older People in the Co-production of Improved Emergency Healthcare
Including frail older people in the development and improvement of healthcare is a topical issue and co-production represents a common approach. How to practice co-production effectively, however, remains challenging, particularly when including vulnerable populations. This paper provides methodological highlights from a project designed to improve care pathways for frail older people. The project applied a co-constructive approach to co-producti…
Hidden healthcare populations
Minority population groups are often excluded or marginalised within health systems and in health research and policy. This article argues that theories of intersectionality can help us to understand these issues and develops the concept of 'hidden healthcare populations' - using the case of people who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Plus (LGBT+) in Nigeria, in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings present original qualitative data fro…
Collaboration for Impact
We aim to encourage other academics to maximise the impact of their own research through collaborative projects with those outside of academia, including research participants and to consider the potential value of arts-based approaches to explore and facilitate reflection on complex tasks and tensions that make up daily work practices. Whilst publication of findings from such projects may be commonplace, accounts of the process are unusual. This…
Co‐production in the epidemiological clinic
Public health policies to prevent disease within populations are giving rise to shifting patterns of healthcare delivery in the late modern era. There is an inherent tension in modern medicine between evidence‐based standardisation, on the one hand, and patient‐centred specificity on the other. This tension manifests in recent policy narratives regarding public health risk (which we have characterised in terms of the epidemiological clinic) and c…
You cannot get enough of them!' The rise (and fall) of complementary therapies in British nursing practice in the 1980s and 1990s
This paper examines the emerging use of complementary therapies in British nursing practice at the end of the twentieth century. Many nurses turned to complementary therapies as a means to provide a closer therapeutic relationship with their patients and this paper will establish how nurses were informed and empowered. The paper places complementary practices in the context of nursing developments in the closing decades of the twentieth century a…
DrugBank 5.0
DrugBank (www.drugbank.ca) is a web-enabled database containing comprehensive molecular information about drugs, their mechanisms, their interactions and their targets. First described in 2006, DrugBank has continued to evolve over the past 12 years in response to marked improvements to web standards and changing needs for drug research and development. This year's update, DrugBank 5.0, represents the most significant upgrade to the database in m…
Theorising Risk Work
The proliferation of risk logics within public and private sector organisational contexts where many professionals work has been studied as a phenomenon itself, as governance and in its impact on clients. The everyday experiences and practices of (para)professionals where risk has become a key and in some cases (re)defining feature or logic of everyday work—in assessing, intervening, advising and/or communicating—has received much less attention.…
Synthetic social support
Levels of social support are strongly associated with health outcomes and inequalities. The use of lay health workers (LHWs) has been suggested by policy makers across the world as an intervention to identify risks to health and to promote health, particularly in disadvantaged communities. However, there have been few attempts to theorize the work undertaken by LHWs to understand how interventions work. In this article, the authors present the co…
Street-level diplomacy? Communicative and adaptive work at the front line of implementing public health policies in primary care
The Role of Self-Management Practices as Mechanisms for Re-Establishing Normality in Cancer Survivors
This article explores the relationship between cancer survivors' use of self-management practices and their search for normality. Using Frank's illness narratives and other theoretical literature on normality in chronic illness, it draws on findings from a qualitative study to explore different ways cancer survivors use self-management practices to re-establish normality in their lives post-cancer. The findings suggest that "normality" represents…
Long-term conditions, self-management and systems of support
The findings have implications for the design and delivery of primary care and community services which support the prevention and management of NCDs in an increasingly diverse population
Using Mixed Methods to Identify and Answer Clinically Relevant Research Questions
The need for mixed methods research in answering health care questions is becoming increasingly recognized because of the complexity of factors that affect health outcomes. In this article, we argue for the value of using a qualitatively driven mixed method approach for identifying and answering clinically relevant research questions. This argument is illustrated by findings from a study on the self-management practices of cancer survivors and th…
The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that characterize the field. Second, focusing on the last 15 years of scholarship, it considers how sociological research on users and practiti…
Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research
BACKGROUND: The Framework Method is becoming an increasingly popular approach to the management and analysis of qualitative data in health research. However, there is confusion about its potential application and limitations. DISCUSSION: The article discusses when it is appropriate to adopt the Framework Method and explains the procedure for using it in multi-disciplinary health research teams, or those that involve clinicians, patients and lay p…
Telehealth as ‘peace of mind’
Mixed methods evaluation of targeted case finding for cardiovascular disease prevention using a stepped wedged cluster RCT
It is possible to design a stepped wedge randomised controlled trial using routine data to determine the primary outcome to evaluate implementation of a cardiovascular prevention programme
From body-talk to body-stories
This paper explores the 'body work' undertaken by practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), in the light of ethnographic research on the education of osteopaths and homeopaths. The data presented focus on practitioners' experiences of learning to communicate, touch and facilitate the healing process for their patients. Two new concepts are introduced: listening to body-talk and constructing body-stories, which are discussed a…
The Embodied Ethnographer
This paper is a reflective account of conducting ethnographic research in training institutions for alternative and complementary medical (CAM) practitioners. In it the author (a) seeks to extend the methodological literature in embodied sociology through reflection on conducting research in this context and discussion of particular events and processes and (b) offers an example of her attempt to strike the fine balance between respect and integr…
The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that characterize the field. Second, focusing on the last 15 years of scholarship, it considers how sociological research on users and practiti…
Street-level diplomacy? Communicative and adaptive work at the front line of implementing public health policies in primary care
From body-talk to body-stories
This paper explores the 'body work' undertaken by practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), in the light of ethnographic research on the education of osteopaths and homeopaths. The data presented focus on practitioners' experiences of learning to communicate, touch and facilitate the healing process for their patients. Two new concepts are introduced: listening to body-talk and constructing body-stories, which are discussed a…
Synthetic social support
Levels of social support are strongly associated with health outcomes and inequalities. The use of lay health workers (LHWs) has been suggested by policy makers across the world as an intervention to identify risks to health and to promote health, particularly in disadvantaged communities. However, there have been few attempts to theorize the work undertaken by LHWs to understand how interventions work. In this article, the authors present the co…
The Embodied Ethnographer
This paper is a reflective account of conducting ethnographic research in training institutions for alternative and complementary medical (CAM) practitioners. In it the author (a) seeks to extend the methodological literature in embodied sociology through reflection on conducting research in this context and discussion of particular events and processes and (b) offers an example of her attempt to strike the fine balance between respect and integr…
The Role of Self-Management Practices as Mechanisms for Re-Establishing Normality in Cancer Survivors
This article explores the relationship between cancer survivors' use of self-management practices and their search for normality. Using Frank's illness narratives and other theoretical literature on normality in chronic illness, it draws on findings from a qualitative study to explore different ways cancer survivors use self-management practices to re-establish normality in their lives post-cancer. The findings suggest that "normality" represents…
Telehealth as ‘peace of mind’
Using Mixed Methods to Identify and Answer Clinically Relevant Research Questions
The need for mixed methods research in answering health care questions is becoming increasingly recognized because of the complexity of factors that affect health outcomes. In this article, we argue for the value of using a qualitatively driven mixed method approach for identifying and answering clinically relevant research questions. This argument is illustrated by findings from a study on the self-management practices of cancer survivors and th…
Women's Experience of Depressive Symptoms While Working From Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in workplace practices as social distancing requirements meant that people were asked to work from home where possible to avoid unnecessary contact. Concerns have been raised about the effects of the pandemic on mental health and, in particular, the effects of social distancing on employed women's mental health. In this study, we explore the experiences of working women during the initial stages of…
Collaboration for Impact
We aim to encourage other academics to maximise the impact of their own research through collaborative projects with those outside of academia, including research participants and to consider the potential value of arts-based approaches to explore and facilitate reflection on complex tasks and tensions that make up daily work practices. Whilst publication of findings from such projects may be commonplace, accounts of the process are unusual. This…
Co‐production in the epidemiological clinic
Public health policies to prevent disease within populations are giving rise to shifting patterns of healthcare delivery in the late modern era. There is an inherent tension in modern medicine between evidence‐based standardisation, on the one hand, and patient‐centred specificity on the other. This tension manifests in recent policy narratives regarding public health risk (which we have characterised in terms of the epidemiological clinic) and c…
Long-term conditions, self-management and systems of support
The findings have implications for the design and delivery of primary care and community services which support the prevention and management of NCDs in an increasingly diverse population
The Embodied Ethnographer
This paper is a reflective account of conducting ethnographic research in training institutions for alternative and complementary medical (CAM) practitioners. In it the author (a) seeks to extend the methodological literature in embodied sociology through reflection on conducting research in this context and discussion of particular events and processes and (b) offers an example of her attempt to strike the fine balance between respect and integr…
From body-talk to body-stories
This paper explores the 'body work' undertaken by practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), in the light of ethnographic research on the education of osteopaths and homeopaths. The data presented focus on practitioners' experiences of learning to communicate, touch and facilitate the healing process for their patients. Two new concepts are introduced: listening to body-talk and constructing body-stories, which are discussed a…
Mixed methods evaluation of targeted case finding for cardiovascular disease prevention using a stepped wedged cluster RCT
It is possible to design a stepped wedge randomised controlled trial using routine data to determine the primary outcome to evaluate implementation of a cardiovascular prevention programme
Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research
BACKGROUND: The Framework Method is becoming an increasingly popular approach to the management and analysis of qualitative data in health research. However, there is confusion about its potential application and limitations. DISCUSSION: The article discusses when it is appropriate to adopt the Framework Method and explains the procedure for using it in multi-disciplinary health research teams, or those that involve clinicians, patients and lay p…
Telehealth as ‘peace of mind’
The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that characterize the field. Second, focusing on the last 15 years of scholarship, it considers how sociological research on users and practiti…
Using Mixed Methods to Identify and Answer Clinically Relevant Research Questions
The need for mixed methods research in answering health care questions is becoming increasingly recognized because of the complexity of factors that affect health outcomes. In this article, we argue for the value of using a qualitatively driven mixed method approach for identifying and answering clinically relevant research questions. This argument is illustrated by findings from a study on the self-management practices of cancer survivors and th…
Long-term conditions, self-management and systems of support
The findings have implications for the design and delivery of primary care and community services which support the prevention and management of NCDs in an increasingly diverse population
Street-level diplomacy? Communicative and adaptive work at the front line of implementing public health policies in primary care
The Role of Self-Management Practices as Mechanisms for Re-Establishing Normality in Cancer Survivors
This article explores the relationship between cancer survivors' use of self-management practices and their search for normality. Using Frank's illness narratives and other theoretical literature on normality in chronic illness, it draws on findings from a qualitative study to explore different ways cancer survivors use self-management practices to re-establish normality in their lives post-cancer. The findings suggest that "normality" represents…
DrugBank 5.0
DrugBank (www.drugbank.ca) is a web-enabled database containing comprehensive molecular information about drugs, their mechanisms, their interactions and their targets. First described in 2006, DrugBank has continued to evolve over the past 12 years in response to marked improvements to web standards and changing needs for drug research and development. This year's update, DrugBank 5.0, represents the most significant upgrade to the database in m…
Theorising Risk Work
The proliferation of risk logics within public and private sector organisational contexts where many professionals work has been studied as a phenomenon itself, as governance and in its impact on clients. The everyday experiences and practices of (para)professionals where risk has become a key and in some cases (re)defining feature or logic of everyday work—in assessing, intervening, advising and/or communicating—has received much less attention.…
Synthetic social support
Levels of social support are strongly associated with health outcomes and inequalities. The use of lay health workers (LHWs) has been suggested by policy makers across the world as an intervention to identify risks to health and to promote health, particularly in disadvantaged communities. However, there have been few attempts to theorize the work undertaken by LHWs to understand how interventions work. In this article, the authors present the co…
Co‐production in the epidemiological clinic
Public health policies to prevent disease within populations are giving rise to shifting patterns of healthcare delivery in the late modern era. There is an inherent tension in modern medicine between evidence‐based standardisation, on the one hand, and patient‐centred specificity on the other. This tension manifests in recent policy narratives regarding public health risk (which we have characterised in terms of the epidemiological clinic) and c…
You cannot get enough of them!' The rise (and fall) of complementary therapies in British nursing practice in the 1980s and 1990s
This paper examines the emerging use of complementary therapies in British nursing practice at the end of the twentieth century. Many nurses turned to complementary therapies as a means to provide a closer therapeutic relationship with their patients and this paper will establish how nurses were informed and empowered. The paper places complementary practices in the context of nursing developments in the closing decades of the twentieth century a…
Hidden healthcare populations
Minority population groups are often excluded or marginalised within health systems and in health research and policy. This article argues that theories of intersectionality can help us to understand these issues and develops the concept of 'hidden healthcare populations' - using the case of people who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Plus (LGBT+) in Nigeria, in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings present original qualitative data fro…
Collaboration for Impact
We aim to encourage other academics to maximise the impact of their own research through collaborative projects with those outside of academia, including research participants and to consider the potential value of arts-based approaches to explore and facilitate reflection on complex tasks and tensions that make up daily work practices. Whilst publication of findings from such projects may be commonplace, accounts of the process are unusual. This…
Using Situated Interviews to Engage Frail Older People in the Co-production of Improved Emergency Healthcare
Including frail older people in the development and improvement of healthcare is a topical issue and co-production represents a common approach. How to practice co-production effectively, however, remains challenging, particularly when including vulnerable populations. This paper provides methodological highlights from a project designed to improve care pathways for frail older people. The project applied a co-constructive approach to co-producti…
Women's Experience of Depressive Symptoms While Working From Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in workplace practices as social distancing requirements meant that people were asked to work from home where possible to avoid unnecessary contact. Concerns have been raised about the effects of the pandemic on mental health and, in particular, the effects of social distancing on employed women's mental health. In this study, we explore the experiences of working women during the initial stages of…
Randomised controlled trial testing effectiveness of feedback about lung age or exhaled CO combined with very brief advice for smoking cessation compared to very brief advice alone in North Macedonia
The trial was registered at http://www.isrctn.com (ISRCTN54228638) on the 07/09/2018
Addressing digital exclusion to improve access to HIV and viral hepatitis care for people who experience criminalization
People who experience criminalization, such as those who use drugs, are incarcerated, and are affected by homelessness, have a high prevalence of HIV and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and low treatment uptake in British Columbia. Barriers to care include unreliable means of maintaining contact with healthcare providers. To reduce these barriers, the Test, Link, Call (TLC) Project provides cell phones and peer health mentors to support acce…
Tackling wicked problems through street-level diplomacy
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be considered a wicked problem because the phenomenon is characterised by multiple, interdependent factors, functioning within ostensibly intractable dynamics. Collaborative or networked governance is often seen as the most appropriate approach to address wicked problems, and there is often scepticism regarding the scalability of micro-level local solutions contributing to neglect in the literature of the role t…
Sociology (16 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Nursing (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Social science (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Public health (6 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Qualitative research (6 works)