Dr Nicola Boydell

Involving young people in the design of health services is vitally important because it can support improvements to both service delivery, and young people’s experiences of services. Sexual and reproductive healthcare is one area in which there is a need to involve young people because they frequently experience poor sexual health, as well as barriers to accessing and using services. Involving young people in service improvements can help remove these barriers and improve their experiences of healthcare.

Compounding this issue, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service providers often lack the tools and resources to carry out involvement work.

This project will study this problem in more depth to: identify if, and how, participatory and co-design approaches for involving young people in health service improvement have been applied in the context of SRH services; examine how SRH service providers articulate young people’s involvement in improvement efforts; and explore young people experiences of involvement in SRH service improvement projects.

This 3.5 year collaborative project is informed by participatory approaches to healthcare improvement research. The project will explore how sexual and reproductive healthcare design and improvement is currently practiced, as well as fostering collaborations with young people (aged 13-18) and service providers to enable the co-design of practical resources that can be used to support the involvement of other young people in work to improve sexual and reproductive health services. Young people will be involved through all stages of the project, including as co-researchers in the qualitative phase of the project.

Over the course of the project, existing research evidence will be reviewed to develop a better understanding of what methods and approaches other people have used in healthcare improvement work with young people. The project will involve the use of a range of qualitative research methods – including document analysis, observations, interviews and group discussions with young people and service providers – to understand how improvement work is done in practice. The project also aims to bring together young people and people who plan and deliver SRH services, to co-design resources that will support young people’s participation in improvement work across other SRH services.

Nicola shares her research insights as a guest on the podcast Listen to THIS. Listen to the episode ‘Co-production and engagement with service users’:

Research articles

Boydell, N., & Basra, S. (2024). Involvement and engagement practices in abortion care – Systems map (Knowledge artefact). Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, University of Edinburgh. https://doi.org/10.7488/era/cbss-2025-003

Boydell, N., & Blaylock, R. (2024). Reflections and future directions for patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in abortion research and service improvement. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health.

Grieve, L., Harden, J., & Boydell, N. (2024). Providers’ perspectives on the barriers to post-20-week Ground C abortion in Scotland. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health.

Boydell, N., et al. (2024). Abortion patients’ perspectives on enhancing a telemedicine model of post-abortion contraception: A qualitative study. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health

Boydell, N., et al. (2023). Evaluation of telemedicine early medical abortion at home in Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Government

Boydell, N., et al. (2022). Involving young people in sexual health research and service improvement: Conceptual analysis of patient and public involvement (PPI) in three projects. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health

Boydell, N.,  et al. (2021). A qualitative study of abortion care providers’ perspectives on telemedicine medical abortion provision in the context of COVID-19. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health

Boydell, N., et al. (2021). Women’s experiences of a telemedicine abortion service (up to 12 weeks) implemented during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A qualitative evaluation. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology