Dr Nicole Steils is a Research Fellow at the NIHR Health & Social Care Workforce Research Unit (HSCWRU), based in the Policy Institute. She joined King's and the Social Care Workforce Research Unit in April 2016.

At the Unit, Nicole worked on an NIHR SSCR-funded study on telecare/assistive technology and the UTOPIA study. She was also engaged in a study on Approved Mental Health Professionals and on Social Work in Hospitals. Currently, as part of HSCWRU activities, she works on an evaluation of Nursing Associates and the Global Migration in the Health and Care Workforce Observatory project. She is also conducting a Department for Education-funded evaluation of a leadership training scheme for social workers.

Prior to joining King’s she was involved in research projects related to social gerontology, integration of health and social care and child inequality at Coventry University. She also developed and evaluated training programmes in the health sector. In May 2013 she completed a Leverhulme Trust-funded PhD research study on the impact of virtual environments on the identity of higher education students, also at Coventry University.

Before becoming a researcher, Nicole worked for over ten years in the area of social work and education in Frankfurt am Main/Germany, providing out-of-school education and social learning as an educational training expert. She also worked on a peer-group youth counselling project as part of her role of educational developer and consultant.

Additionally, she was a Teaching Fellow at Goethe-University in Frankfurt, where she also graduated with an MA in Education with the two major subjects of Political & Social Science, and German Language & Literature.

Nicole’s research interests lie in the use of technologies, particularly with older people and in education; counselling/mentoring, social policy; personal identity/identities and how these are shaped; and bringing theory and practice together.

Nicole Steils: ORCID iD | Research Profile at King's