Prof Khatijah is currently a Nursing Professor and Head of Department of Nursing, School of Healthcare and Medical Science Sunway University, Malaysia. She has over 10 years of nursing experience in various hospitals both in Malaysia and overseas prior to joining the academia in 1997. Under her leadership as the department head, the Nursing Department was awarded as the Highest Publication Department for Clinical Department at Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya for 2018.

She is actively engaged in teaching, research, service, consultancy and development in nursing education across the continuum of nursing education. She coordinated the first Masters in nursing program in Malaysia and has graduated over 25 PhDs nursing students. Currently she is involved as Technical Committee Member in the Nursing Board Malaysia and is one of the nursing auditors for the Malaysia Qualification Malaysia since 2014.

Prof Khatijah has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in international refereed journals and book chapters and she is currently the Vice President for Qualitative Research Association Malaysia, Chief Editor for the Malaysia Journal of Qualitative Research, Editorial Board Member for Pediatrics and Neonatal Open Journal (PNNOJ) and a member of the Editorial Board as Academic Editor for PLOS ONE.