Biography
Karen Hoare originally trained as an adult and children’s nurse at the Hospital for Sick Children, Gt. Ormond St, London and Watford General Hospital. She qualified as a health visitor in 1985 (specialist community public health nurse). Her training as a nurse practitioner occurred during a two year posting to the Medical Research Council’s Dunn Nutrition Unit in The Gambia, West Africa where her research career was also launched. Her experience of living in The Gambia with some of the world’s poorest people galvanized her to become involved in international development, she was founder of the UK charity development Direct (see www.developmentdirect.org.uk) and prior to emigrating she worked as a consultant for the UK’s Department for International Development. Karen immigrated to New Zealand in November 2003 and spent 2004 working as a public health nurse. She currently works in the Goodfellow Unit, within the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care and the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland. She is active in developing continuing professional development resources for nurses for the Goodfellow website. Her role is to encourage more primary health care nurses to become interested in postgraduate education, research, publishing and general professional development. She is a member of Chief Nurse Mark Jones’ expert advisory group for primary health care nursing. Karen runs a nurse-led children’s clinic on Tuesday and Saturday mornings in Manurewa, South Auckland.
Karen is a keen horse rider, sailor and tramper. Married to Simon, a paediatrician, they have three (almost) grown up children. The whole family are committed to humanitarian work in various countries in Africa and are active in building support for international development.