Leila Kattach began her PhD in September 2021 and holds a part-time honorary role as an advanced clinical nurse specialist for dermatology and skin cancer with the NHS.
Prior to starting her PhD Leila worked as an advanced nurse practitioner for dermatology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Dermatology is a field of medicine which she feels passionate about and believes is her forte.
She holds a BSc (hons) degree in adult nursing, which has served as the basis for her professional career. She has since achieved two master’s degrees, the first focused on management, leadership, and research, and the second on clinical skills within dermatology. With over 20 years of experience working within the NHS, she has spent the last 12 years specialising in medical dermatology and aesthetic medicine.
Leila has additionally completed the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Fellowship for Nurses and has earned the title of Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Furthermore, she completed the ‘Teach our teachers’ course at Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust. After winning the EGO pharmaceuticals travel award in 2023, she attended the Australia Dermatology Nurses Association where she won best abstract. She also won best 1st poster presentation at the 7th European Regional Sigma Conference 2024.
Leila is fervent about health service development, innovation and improving patient outcomes and is regularly involved in projects that lead to enhancing patient education and support and service implementation and redesign. She is grateful for the opportunities that her academic and professional journey has offered and remains dedicated to providing her patients with holistic and patient-centred evidence-base care.
Research
Leila is currently undertaking a PhD and her project aims to investigate the types and components of nurse-led models of service delivery in existence for patients requiring assessment and/or education for skin cancer. This is as a basis for co-creating an acceptable and viable nurse-led model of service delivery for skin cancer. The nurse-led model is intended for implementation within the NHS.
The uniqueness of this model lies in its co-creation process, involving input from a patient and public involvement advisory group, service users of national skin cancer services, and specialist skin cancer clinicians (doctors and nurses). This collaborative effort ensures that considerations for feasibility, acceptability, and safety are thoroughly integrated into the design.