Photo of Dr Najette Ayadi O’Donnell

Dr Najette Ayadi O’Donnell

Telephone:

Email:

Location:

  • University College Hospital

GMC/GDC number:

7088275

Professional background

Dr Najette Ayadi O’Donnell is a Consultant General Paediatrician at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) with specialist interests in adolescent health and complex safeguarding. She is the Clinical Lead for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Adolescents and Children with Complex Conditions Service (TRACCS).

Her adolescent clinical practice focuses on young people with chronic fatigue syndrome, medically unexplained symptoms, functional neurological disorders, and other complex adolescent medicine cases. She also provides general paediatric care, managing a broad range of common childhood conditions. In addition, as an EPALS Instructor, she trains healthcare professionals in paediatric advanced life support.

Najette was previously Lead for Health at The Lighthouse, the UK’s only Child House, which provides multidisciplinary support for children and young people affected by sexual abuse in North Central London. She remains actively involved in safeguarding and is passionate about trauma-informed care.

She graduated in Medicine from Imperial College London in 2010 (MBBS, BSc Hons) and also holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Leeds (2004). She is a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Young People’s Health Special Interest Group (YPHSIG). She has completed specialist training in young people’s health and child safeguarding, and has been awarded SPINs in both by the RCPCH.

Najette was the first recipient of the Michelle Zalkin Scholarship at University College London, completing an MSc in Child Health in 2021. She was awarded RCPCH Educational Supervisor of the Year (PAFTA) in 2023 and was a finalist in the UCLH Celebrating Excellence Awards (2024) for her contribution to education. She is also the London School of Paediatrics College Tutor at UCLH and an educational supervisor.

Najette has coordinated and delivered safeguarding and adolescent health courses nationally through RCPCH, RSM, and RCEM, and teaches both undergraduates and postgraduates at UCL. She co-organises the Child Safeguarding MSc module at the UCL Institute of Child Health and is an Honorary Lecturer there. In 2022, she co-organised the RCPCH Adolescent Health Conference “Re-Coming of Age.”

Her educational interests include the use of simulation to improve communication with vulnerable adolescents. She developed Conversations for Life, an interactive training course in this area, and continues to supervise undergraduate dissertation projects at UCL.

Specialties

Research interests

Adolescent health, child sexual abuse, unmet health needs, trauma informed care, medically unexplained symptoms, chronic fatigue syndrome, functional neurological disorder, neurodiversity in young people.

Publications

  • Choudhury A, Segal TY, O’Donnell NA. 1845 ’Please write to Me’; How well are clinicians adhering to the guidance in writing to young people? 
    BMJ Paediatrics Open 2022;6:doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2022-RCPCH.22 

  • Malik Bin Bali Mahomed N, Kumaralingam N, Rossana F, Ayadi O’Donnell N, Segal T et al (2022). First post-pandemic adolescent engagement event. BMJ Paediatrics
    Open 2022;6:doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2022-RCPCH.49 

  • Lloyd-Williams O & Ayadi O’Donnell N (2022). Victim-Blaming: Assessing Doctors and Teachers’ Responses to Adolescent Sexual Assault Disclosures. Archives of Disease in Childhood 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N & Monfrinoli A (2021). ‘The impact of COVID-19 on child sexual abuse referrals seen at an urban sexual assault referral centre’, Archives of Disease in Childhood 2021-Accepted for publication 

  • Hodes D, Ayadi O’Donnell N, Pall K, et al (2020). ‘Epidemiological surveillance study of female genital mutilation in the UK’, Archives of Disease in Childhood. Published Online First: 06 October 2020. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-319569. 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N, Alladi S, Battersby A et al (2020). ‘Where is the voice of the child in weighing the cost of this pandemic?’, BMJ. 2020;369:m1669. 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N & Hodes D (2018). ‘Female Genital Mutilation’. Shaw M & Bailey S (editors) Justice for Children and Families. A developmental Perspective. p101-109, Cambridge University Press. 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N, Leoni M, Debelle G, et al (2018). ‘Female genital mutilation surveillance in under 16 years olds in the UK and Ireland’. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2018;103:A58. 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N, Pall K, Leoni M, et al (2018). ‘Female genital mutilation (FGM) surveillance in under 16 years olds in the UK and Ireland’. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2018;103:A201. 

  • Ayadi O’Donnell N, Wood B, Salter R & Maconochie I (2010). ‘The outcome of new referrals made by paediatric emergency medicine department to children’s Social Services and a survey of the feedback received afterwards’. Archives of Disease of Childhood. April, Vol 95, Supplement No.1 (A40-41).