Dr Nicola Power

Profile

My research focusses on the socio-cognitive processes involved in decision-making and teamwork under pressure. Specifically, I am interested in the psychology of indecision – identifying the principles that predict why decision-making derails in high pressured work environments. The vast majority of my research has been with the Emergency Services, where I have worked at both local and national levels. More recently I have expanded my research collaborations to include work with the NHS and private companies. I take a mixed methods approach to research by utilising a Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) framework. NDM research combines both quantitative and qualitative techniques (e.g., interviews, observations) to identify the socio-cognitive processes used by individuals and teams operating in complex work domains. I have expertise in designing and delivering immersive simulations to both train and test the principles of decision making with practitioners. As such, my research has both academic and applied impact; disseminating findings through traditional academic outputs such as conferences and publications, whilst ensuring findings are also shared with end-users both directly and indirectly through a mixture of practitioner reports, workshops and training.