Professional Interests
I have a wide range of professional interests. I am involved in municipal health services, hospital services, both general and acute health services, and in particular anesthesia, operating room, intensive care and emergency nursing, nurse practitioners, prehospital/outpatient services as well as emergency/acute medical communication centers (AMK). The main focus of my research are patient safety and quality of the health and welfare services, quality of education, competence as well as innovations and digitalisation of health services. Since I have worked as a nurse for over 20 years, I have worked in a range of services, e.g. municipal health services such as nursing home and home care services, and various hospital departments including emergency and operating room departments. From those experiences, I have gotten to know employees from many arenas and also have obtained a knowledge and understanding of both the services and the challenges (both negative and positive) at the various locations/organisations. As a result, I aim to use my knowledge and experiences to contribute to innovations, quality improvement, professional development, increased patient/user safety and professional competence.
Since April 2017, I have been an employee of the Høgskolen and have also seen that the educational institutions have had some challenges in meeting both the educational needs of professionals, and the needs within the future of health and welfare services. Therefore, these additional challenges have been an area of interest for me.
From August 2025 I started my position as a Vice-dean of research and education, enabling me to gain insight into leadership in academia.
I was one of four participants responsible for the planning and the design of the application for establishment of a Master’s program in Clinical Nursing, which was implemented in August 2021 (Master i klinisk sykepleie). I am also a member of the program group for planning of the Høgskolen’s PhD initiative, “The Digital Society”, and provided focused efforts primarily to the group DigiHealth (The digital society).
Instruction/Courses taught
In 2017 I was engaged in education of bachelor nursing students, both in clinical practice, skill traning and courses. Since the fall 2019, I was mainly associated with continued education in acute, anesthesia, intensive care and operating room nursing, and from 2021, with the Master’s program in Clinical Nursing. This Master’s program includes the fields of study in advanced general clinical nursing, anesthesia, operating room and intensive care nursing:
- Masterstudium i klinisk sykepleie - avansert klinisk allmennsykepleie (120 studiepoeng) – Høgskolen i Østfold (hiof.no)
- Masterstudium i klinisk sykepleie – Anestesisykepleie (120 studiepoeng) – Høgskolen i Østfold (hiof.no)
- Masterstudium i klinisk sykepleie – Intensivsykepleie (120 studiepoeng) – Høgskolen i Østfold (hiof.no)
- Masterstudium i klinisk sykepleie – Operasjonssykepleie (120 studiepoeng) – Høgskolen i Østfold (hiof.no)
In the fall 2018, I was the course lead and responsible for continued education in emergency nursing for a one-year period:
In the period of 2012-2013, I was the course lead and responsible for continued education in operating room nursing for a one-year period:
Subjects I have taught are related to pre and postoperative nursing, nursing assessment competence, clinical observations, simulation in clinical observations and measures, various practical skills, patient safety, non-technical skills, communication tools, scientific theory and various research methodologies. Furthermore, I supervise both Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degree level students.
Background
My current position (as of August 2025) is as a Vice-Dean in research and education at the Faculty of health, welfare and organization, ØUC, as well as Professor in Digital Health and Nursing.
I graduated as a nurse in 1996 and as a nurse anesthetist in 2006. I have experience as a nurse and nurse anesthetist from home care nursing, nursing home, different hospital departments, such as geriatrics, pulmonary, gynecology, cancer, hematology, emergency medicine and operating room. In parallel to clinical work, I completed my education in Health and Social Administration and Management in 2009 and a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Collaboration in 2012. I received my Doctorate degree in Healthcare Services Research in 2017. I obtained further training and education in Pedagogics and Digital Methods in 2018 and the Program for Outstanding Research Dissemination in 2019. Finally, I completed courses in Systematic reviews and a postdoctoral course from University in Oslo (UiO) in project management and guidance.
Since 2017, I have also been employed in a 20% research position at Østfold Hospital TRust, and from March 2022 as a Professor in Nurse Anesthesia at the University of Southeastern Norway.
In addition, since 2011, I have been the chief editor for the Journal of anesthesia, operating room and critical care nursing, Inspira. Since January 2021, the journal is published digitally through Cappelen Damm Akademisk:
I was also the chief editor for the book 'Anestesisykepleie' (Nurse Anesthesia), that was published through Cappelen Damm Akademisk. In addition, I was the sole author on two chapters and co-author on another five chapters. The book was published February 26, 2021 (ongoing revision, planned release February 2026):
I am a peer-reviewer for a number of scientific journals including Nursing Research, BMC Health Services Research, International Journal for Clinical Nursing, Journal of Clinical Nursing, International Journal of Quality in Healthcare and BMJ Open.
Elected Positions
- Member Research Board Østfold Hospital 2026-
- Member Professional Board 'Helsefellesskapet Østfold' 2025 https://www.kompetansebroen.no/samhandling/helsefellesskapet-i-ostfold
- Member National Board of the Norwegian Nurses Association 2023-2027
- Member National Board of the Norwegian Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 2019-
- Member of Editorial Board BMC Health Services Research 2023-
- Leader of the Anesthesia Nurses NSF (Anestesissykepleierne NSF), Østfold 2016-2020
- Secretary of the Anesthesia Nurses NSF (Anestesissykepleierne NSF), Østfold 2021- current
- Member of the local group board of Anesthesia Nurses NSF (Anestesissykepleierne NSF), Østfold 2008- current
- Leader of the research group for Advanced clinical nursing (AKS), ØUC: Avansert klinisk sykepleie, AKS 2018-2025
- Leader of the research group Advanced Nursing, University of Southeastern Norway
- Member of the research group Person-centred healthcare and the Digital Society: Person-sentrert helsearbeid og det digitale samfunn (PADS) - Institutt for sykepleie, helse og bioingeniørfag (hiof.no) 2017-2023
- Member of the research group Health and Welfare in the Digital Society, ØUC
- Commission Member for assessment of applications for funding from Stiftelsen Dam 2020-current
- Member of the Research Committee Høgskolen i Østfold (HiØ), Health and Welfare 2018-current
- Member of the Research Committee at the Hospital in Østfold 2014-2018.
Collaborations
Projects I am involved in include partner collaborations from the Faculty for Health, Welfare and Organization (Bachelors in Nursing and Intellectual Disability Nursing, Master degree in Clinical Nursing (nurse practitioners, emergency care nuses, nurse anesthetists, operating room nurses and critical care nurses), Masters in Coordination of Health and Welfare Services, and from the Faculty of Information Technology, Engineering and Economics (Institute of Information Technology, Engineering and Economics).
Externally, I collaborate with most municipalities in Østfold, the five municipal acute wards in Østfold, the Hospital in Østfold (operating room department, emergency room and departments for: geriatrics, infection, observation, cancer, medicine, intensive care and monitoring, medical monitoring and research), Sørlandet Hospital, Haukeland University Hospital, Stavanger University Hospital, Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), Tønsberg Hospital, Ringerike Hospital, Health Services Research (HØKH) at Ahus, University in Oslo, University in Southeast-Norway (Sørøst-Norge), University in Stavanger, Lunds University, University in Umeå, Högskolan in Borås, Tuke Institute (GB), University of Alberta, Central Catalonia Innovation and Research Primary Care Unit / Catalan Health Institute (Barcelona, Spain), and not least the users via the National Association for Heart and Lung Disease (Landsforeningen for hjerte- og lungesyke -LHL), the Norwegian Cancer Society (Kreftforeningen), and the Hospital in Østfold’s user committee.