Monica Wammen Nortvedt

Field of work

Vice Dean of Collaboration for the period 01.08.2021 – 31.07.2025

The Vice Dean of Collaboration holds strategic responsibility for the faculty's interaction with regional, national, and international partners. The Vice Dean will further develop the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences as a regional, national, and international knowledge actor, facilitating innovation and entrepreneurship. Additionally, the Vice Dean is responsible for ensuring campus development across all campuses of the college and promoting interdisciplinary and interfaculty collaboration.

Nortvedt is a trained intensive care nurse with previous experience in various emergency departments. She holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Bergen. Throughout her career, she has been particularly focused on developing HiB/HVL as a regional and national social actor and an institution that educates highly skilled candidates who are in demand and relevant in the Health sector. From 2017 to 2019, she took a leave of absence from HVL to work as the unit leader for Emergency Services in Bergen municipality.

Nortvedt has represented HiB/HVL in various contexts, including the establishment of the Knowledge Municipality Health Care West. This initiative involves nine municipalities and seven research institutions collaborating to strengthen research, innovation, and knowledge development in services to ensure that residents receive the best, knowledge-based services. She was also involved in the planning and establishment of the Alrek Health Cluster, which aims to create innovative health and care solutions through excellent research and education, practice arenas, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Through her work in national councils such as HelseOmsorg21, she has contributed to creating a targeted and comprehensive national effort for research and innovation in health and care. This effort spans the entire value chain from research to innovation and commercialization.

Nortvedt has been central in developing the field of evidence-based practice in Norway. Together with her colleagues, she developed the continuing education program "Working and Teaching Evidence-Based." This program has made a significant contribution to enhancing expertise in the field. The continuing education program has been offered at Nordland Hospital, Helse Bergen, Bergen Municipality, Stavanger University Hospital, Radiumhospitalet, and Oslo University Hospital. Nortvedt has also led the efforts to develop and accredit a master's degree in evidence-based practice. She is the lead author of the book "Work Evidence-Based!", which was published in its third edition in 2021 and is used as a textbook at several colleges and universities in Norway.

Nortvedt led the development of the research initiative in evidence-based practice at the former Bergen University College and headed the research center, Center for Evidence-Based Practice, until 2015.

Her research focus has been on patient safety and the implementation of evidence-based practice in education and healthcare services. Many of her projects lie at the intersection of teaching and implementation research. She has participated in and supervised projects for implementing evidence-based practice at Løvåsen Teaching Nursing Home and at Oslo University Hospital, Radiumhospitalet.

In 2009, she was awarded funding to establish and lead the Regional Health Research Initiative, Strategic Research Program in Evidence-Based Practice in Health Sciences in Helse Vest from 2009 to 2013. This was one of five strategic initiatives in Helse Vest during this period.

Nortvedt defended her doctoral dissertation in 2001, titled "The significance of measuring the quality of life in multiple sclerosis: obtaining important information not provided by traditional measures," earning a Dr. Polit. degree from the University of Bergen. The study was part of a collaboration with researchers at the National Competence Center for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) at Haukeland University Hospital and the University of Bergen. Nortvedt was an early adopter of using measures of health-related quality of life and self-assessed health as indicators of MS burden and in estimating treatment effects in MS.