Dr Ivana Babicova

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Email:: ivana.babicova@bcu.ac.uk

Ivana is predominantly a cognitive psychologist with research interests in dementia, observational pain assessment, wellbeing and secondary traumatic stress. Before arriving at BCU in January 2021, she completed her BSc and PhD at the University of Derby. Ivana's work primarily focuses on improving quality of life in people with moderate-to-severe dementia, mainly through quantitative methodologies.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Teaching

Research

Publications

Journal Articles:

Babicova, I. & Heritage, F. (Accepted). ‘Vulnerable women and dead men’: A corpus linguistic approach to discourses on Twitter about gendered social actors who have dementia.

Conroy, D., & Babicova, I. (2024). Secondary traumatic stress and trauma-informed practice in higher education students: an exploratory study. European Social Work Research, 1-16.

Abu-Omar, D., Kirkman, A., Scott, C., Babicova, I., & Irons, Y. (2024). Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Confidence, and Decrease Anxiety among Students with Dyslexia: A Narrative Review. Youth, 4, 1-21.

Conroy, D., Benaton, T., Babicova, I., & Eate, E. (2022). Investigating Secondary Trauma in Student Placements: An Exploratory Study. The British Journal of Social Work.

Babicova, I., Cross, A., Forman, D., Hughes, J., & Hoti, K. (2021). Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of PainChek® in UK Aged Care Residents with advanced dementia. BMC geriatrics, 21(1), 1-8.

Robertshaw, D., & Babicova, I. (2021). Tweeting on dementia: A snapshot of the content and sentiment of tweets associated with dementia. First Monday.

Robertshaw, D. & Babicova, I. (2020). New perspectives on great questions: What can MOOCs tell us?. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 23(1).

Robertshaw, D. & Babicova, I. (2020). Discovering the memory thief: MOOC participants’ personal experiences of dementia. Nurse Education in Practice, 42, 102693.

Conference presentations:

Babicova, I. (September 2025). ‘Incorporating FACS to Enhance Quality of Life and Reduce Bias in Pain Assessment in Health and Social Care of Older People’. Institute of Ageing and Health, Birmingham, UK.

Earnshaw, D., & Babicova, I. (July 2025). ‘Exploring the Impact of Secondary Traumatic Stress on Student-Facing Higher Education Staff’. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference. British Psychological Society (BPS), Leeds, UK.

Babicova, I., & Conroy, D. (August 2022). ‘Student Wellbeing in Placement: Becoming Trauma Informed and Trauma Informed Care in the UK’. American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Babicova, I., Heritage, F., & Robertshaw, D. (April 2022). ‘Vulnerable Women and Dead Men’: A corpus-based analysis of discourses on Twitter about gendered social actors who have dementia. 14th BAAL Language, Gender and Sexuality SIG Event: Language, Gender and Health Inequalities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham.

Babicova, I., Hoti, K., Forman, D., & Hughes, J. (June, 2022), Exploring the user perceived feasibility of PainChek® and Abbey Pain Scale in the UK care home setting. British Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2022, London.

Hoti, K. & Babicova, I. (May 2020 – accepted manuscript for oral presentation. Conference cancelled due to COVID-19). 2020 Alzheimer’s Society Annual Conference, London.

Babicova, I. (May, 2017). A Research into Validity, Accuracy and Feasibility of Electronic Pain Assessment Tool (ePAT) for People with Dementia in UK Care Homes. 2017 Postgraduate Research Conference, University of Derby, Derby.

Babicova, I. (September, 2018). Pain in People with Dementia: A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Observational Pain Assessment Tools. 2018 East Midlands Doctoral Network Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln.

Robertshaw, D. & Babicova, I., (May, 2018). Changing Societal Attitudes to Dementia Through Large-Scale Open Online Learning. 2018 Alzheimer’s Society Annual Conference, London.