Colleagues bid Karen a happy retirement after 40 years of NHS service
A much loved member of #TeamUHDB is retiring after 40 years of services in the NHS in Derbyshire.
Karen Bussooa, who most recently worked as End of Life Care Facilitator at Royal Derby Hospital, began her training as a nurse in Derby in the late 1970s before qualifying in 1980 and going on to work at the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary site on London Road.
Karen’s next move saw her undertake an Oncology course at The Royal Marsden before becoming back to the DRI. Community nursing called in the early 1990's where Karen qualified as a District Nurse in 1997 and later as a community matron, before moving into commissioning for the Southern Derbyshire Primary Care Team.
Karen has always had a passion for providing and developing end of life care, and returned to Royal Derby Hospital as an End of Life Care Facilitator in 2007.
In the last 13 years, she has helped to implement a number of initiatives to improve end of life care for our patients, including the Birds Model, the pop-up bedrooms scheme and the opening of the Healing Garden at Royal Derby Hospital, as well as establishing the education programme for nurses. 
Karen was a major part in leading UHDB to receiving its first ‘Outstanding’ score for ‘Responsive’ in End of Life Care in our CQC report in 2019. Karen was also part of the team who won Charity Project of the Year at our Annual Making a Difference Awards in 2019 for their work on creating the Healing Garden at Royal Derby Hospital.
Karen was presented with a gift from her colleagues today (23 June) and will work her final shift at UHDB on Tuesday 30 June.
Captions: 1- Karen Bussooa, centre, after being presented with a retirement gift from her colleagues
2 - Karen Bussooa in her early nursing career
3 - Karen, second from left, receiving the award for Charity Project of the Year in 2019