Karen Hawksworth
RN, PGCert, LLM, BSc (Hons), BSocSc (Hons)

Biography

The saying goes, you can take the girl out of Birmingham, but you can’t take Birmingham out of the girl! Karen remains a proud girl from the big heart of England but enjoying her new location here on the South Coast. A girl from landlocked Birmingham cannot fail to be overawed by the huge cruise liners that Southampton so effortlessly hosts and the majestic Forest and ancient coastline we are so privileged to have access to.

Formerly an economics graduate recruit with HSBC, Karen turned her back on the banking hall and headed towards the wards and followed her true passion for delivering patient care. She has been extremely lucky to have had a wide and varied career and been supported by so many amazing mentors and professional coaches.

Karen is essentially a trauma nurse with the majority of her experience based in acute admissions, coronary care and then the emergency department. She has managed a variety of NHS projects, such as the productive ward series, and is a proud alumnus of the NHS emerging leaders LIFT programme. She left Bristol as a senior matron for the Critical Care Division for a compassionate move to Hampshire and joined the private healthcare sector to gain management experience at director level. Her unswerving passion for nursing education drew her back to university and completion of her PGCert in Leading HealthCare Education which subsequently opened the door to the Solent adult nursing team.

Karen is a busy working mum to a child with profound global learning difficulties which has exposed her to a whole new world of skills - such the mastery of Makaton! However, her one true love remains her sausage dog, which she can be seen walking on Southampton Common. Regular park goers all recognise her little-legged bossy boots who tries to keep up with the Park Run gang!