Dr Dunderdale came to the Trust as interim Director of Nursing in February at the start of the COVID-19
pandemic. She is also the Trust’s Director of Infection Prevention and Control and has played a key role in making sure that patients, visitors and staff are safe from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
This is her sixth executive director position. She has held Board-level roles as a Chief Nurse, Chief Operating Officer, Deputy CEO and acting CEO. In addition, she held the role of vice chair of her local hospice for a number of years. Her more recent role before coming to the Trust was as Director of Nursing at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, where her leadership supported the Trust to come out of special measures and achieve Outstanding for Caring in its CQC ratings.
Dr Dunderdale qualified as a registered nurse in 1991 and her clinical experience has been in cardiology. She became a cardiac nurse specialist developing cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure services. She has a PhD in Health Related Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure from York University, has contributed substantially to the development of cardiac nursing, and raised expectations nationally within the nursing profession. In 2017 Dr Dunderdale joined the national nursing team at NHS Improvement working for Dr Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, contributing to the wider nursing and patient experience agenda.
Chief Executive, Andrew Morgan, said: “Karen’s substantive appointment as Director of Nursing is great news for the Trust and our patients. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge that has really helped us during the pandemic and will be invaluable as we look to the future.”