Karn Cliffe

Karn started her nursing career in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin. Following a couple of years working in various acute settings she undertook her Midwifery studies at City University London and qualified at a time of exciting change in Midwifery practice in London’s East End following the introduction of Changing Childbirth. After five years in London, she decided to travel for a year and backpacked across Australia. She worked as a midwife and nurse in both remote and urban settings, in three states over a seven-year period while also traveling the length and breadth of Australia. During her time in Australia, she developed an interest in maternal morbidity and mortality. She undertook an MSc in Advance Nursing/Midwifery Practice, and wrote a ‘Training Manual for Traditional Birth Attendants in South East Asia’.

On return to Ireland Karn worked at University Maternity Hospital Limerick for six months and then moved to Drogheda where she worked in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital as a midwife in the Midwifery Led Unit and a Midwifery Clinical Placement Coordinator. Through this time, she undertook a Clinical Doctorate in Midwifery. Her thesis was a longitudinal cohort study on ‘Women’s Experience of Early Labour and the Impact on Duration and Outcome’. It was during this time and following a widely publicized maternal death from sepsis that she developed a keen interest in maternal sepsis in the first instance, but also across all patient groups. It was through this interest she successfully secured a position with the National Sepsis Programme and the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group as an Assistant Director of Nursing for Sepsis. In 2020 she was redeployed to various roles supporting acute settings and Residential Care Facilities on Covid-19 prevention and monitoring initiatives. Since January 2021 she led the Covid-19 vaccination program for Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. She is currently the Director of Nursing & Midwifery for Research, Practice Standards, and Quality with Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.