Monica Wammen Nortvedt

Field of work

Monica Wammen Nortvedt served as Vice Dean for Collaboration at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2025. In this role, she held overarching strategic responsibility for the faculty’s collaboration with the field of practice and with regional, national, and international partners. She worked to further develop the faculty as a distinct knowledge actor and to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and integrated campus development. Nortvedt also facilitated interdisciplinary and interfaculty collaboration and played a key role in HVL’s efforts in regional development and internationalisation.

Nortvedt is a trained intensive care nurse and has previously worked in several acute care departments at Haukeland University Hospital. She also has experience as head public health nurse in Masfjorden Municipality. She holds a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Bergen .

Since 1992, Nortvedt has held various academic and leadership positions at the former Bergen University College and at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), including roles as professor, head of department, centre director, vice dean, and dean. She has been particularly committed to developing HVL as a regional and national societal actor and to educating graduates who are both relevant and in demand in the labour market. From 2017 to 2019, she was on leave from HVL to work as head of Emergency Care Services in Bergen Municipality.

Nortvedt has represented Bergen University College and HVL in several key collaborative projects. She was involved in the establishment of the Knowledge Municipality Health and Care West – a partnership between nine municipalities and seven research institutions working together to promote knowledge-based services through research and innovation. She also contributed to the planning and development of the Alrek Health Cluster, a cross-disciplinary environment for education, research, and innovation in future health and care services.

Through her work in national councils, such as HelseOmsorg21, Nortvedt has contributed to strengthening the national effort for research and innovation in the health and care sector – with an emphasis on the entire value chain from knowledge development to implementation and commercialisation. She previously led the UH-nett Vest research network for health and care, which aimed to establish a strong regional research collaboration between higher education institutions in Western Norway.

Nortvedt has also represented HVL in the Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Health Expert Group, where regional competence development is a central part of the strategic collaboration. She is actively engaged in work on diversity and inclusion and has served as a mentor in Bergen Opportunity – a leadership and mentoring programme for immigrant talents, organised by the Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The goal is to promote multicultural role models and strengthen the region’s position as an inclusive and international knowledge hub.

Courses taught 

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.

Research areas

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.