Who should be doing skin checks? Rethinking roles in skin health

Skin cancer prevention and early detection continue to place increasing pressure on primary care and allied health teams. At the same time, the workforce involved in “skin health” is expanding and evolving, raising important questions about roles, scope, and collaboration in everyday practice. In this episode of Focused Practice Conversations, practice operations expert Matt Woollard speaks with dermatology nurse Jennifer Hookham about how skin health roles are changing in real-world settings. With experience spanning primary care and corporate environments, Jennifer offers a grounded perspective on where the system is heading and what it means for clinicians on the ground. Rather than focusing on fixed job titles, the conversation explores how skills, training, and demand are reshaping who does what in skin checks, prevention, and early detection. The episode unpacks: How Jennifer’s career path into skin health has evolved over time What a modern, prevention-focused skin health role looks like in practice How nurses, dermal clinicians, and GPs are working in overlapping spaces Where collaboration works well, and where it can break down What patients are now expecting from skin health services How training and standards are keeping pace with workforce changes Where the skin health space may be heading over the next 5–10 years   As demand grows, understanding how roles fit together is becoming increasingly important for clinics looking to deliver safe, efficient, and patient-centred skin care. The discussion touches on practical realities, emerging models of care, and what effective teamwork can look like. Prefer a visual format? Watch here.   About Jennifer Hookham MACN Founder of The Dermal Health Alliance Pty Ltd & Skin Rehab™  Grad Cert Medicine (Skin Cancer), Grad Cert Ed (Tertiary), BHSc (Dermal Therapies), Dip Nursing (Div 2), Dip Dermoscopy, Adv Cert Dermoscopy, Prof Cert Dermsocopy, Adv Cert Dermoscopy (ACCO), Dip BTh (ITEC), Cert IV TAE, Cert III (Pathology Collection) With 34 years of experience as a skin health professional, Jennifer is a Dermatology Nurse incorporating the qualifications of Dermal Clinician, Dermatoscopist, Melanographer, Enrolled Nurse, Phlebotomist & Educator.   Next steps in your learning journey 🎓 Certificate Courses Deep-dive into a university-assured, structured pathway from foundation to subspecialisation in 20+ special interest fields. ➡️  Explore Certificate Courses > 🎓 Short Courses Explore 400 short, online CPD modules in focused topics — and learn exactly what you need, when you need it. Complete in less than 10 hours from $95. ➡️ Browse single-topic courses >  🎓 HealthCert 365 subscription Prefer flexible learning across many topics? Access 4,000+ CPD hours on-demand with HealthCert 365 — anytime, any topic, one flat annual fee. ➡️ Discover HealthCert 365 > Focused Practice Conversations series HealthCert Education's Focused Practice Conversations podcast series explores how GPs build focused areas of practice, why they chose that path, what changed in their clinic, and whether going deeper into one niche was ultimately worth it. Hosted by Matt Woollard.