Karen Linegar, THS-North West Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery, DHHS
Karen has made an outstanding contribution over decades to nursing and midwifery in the state, especially in the North West region. Karen developed the Registered Nurse program in the NW to enable a transition to the new professional role undertaken in the acute setting of the multi-site NW, inclusive of one-district hospital. She adopted and developed the Enrolled Nurse program alongside the framework of the RN program – enabling Enrolled Nurses to work in the NW Emergency department for the first time. Karen developed the 2nd year Graduate Program – the Advanced Practice Program which is unique to the NW. This initiative has grown to empower leadership at an early level fostering a dynamic and highly skilled nursing and midwifery workforce.
Karen is an Associate Professor at UTAS and has shown leadership creating an engaging program with the UTAS Rural Clinical School reinforcing the value of new staff and building relationships. 4th year medical students shadow and learn with nursing staff in order to engage and learn in the workforce and only the NW has this relationship with medical students training. Karen has held many senior professional positions including President of the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Chairperson Nursing Board of Tasmania and President and Board member of the Australian Council on Health Care Standards. Karen is also a JP and after hours bench magistrate and has championed nursing and midwifery particularly in the NW regions tirelessly always with patient/person centred care being delivered through professional nursing.