Dr. Nickels research focuses on interpersonal communication and the intersection of health, family, and media, with a focus on difficult conversations, end-of-life, and supportive interactions. She is interested in lived experiences and how communication can be used to strengthen and sustain relational ties and communicative interactions during times of turbulence and relational separation.

Dr. Nickels has examined difficult interactions in a variety of contexts, including end-of-life in veterinary medicine, relational separation due to incarceration, and mediated depictions of end-of-life as a means to facilitate effective end-of-life communication within families.