Kari Ingstad
Kari Ingstad is a registered nurse and professor of sociology at the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Nord University. She is strongly committed to research, education, and innovation in the areas of organization, leadership, interprofessional collaboration, use of technology in healthcare, working life, employment conditions, and work-time arrangements. Since 2021, she has served as Vice Dean for Research at the faculty.
Ingstad leads the research group Emergency Care, Innovation and Patient Safety (AKIP), which focuses on practice-oriented challenges in the healthcare sector and the development of knowledge-based solutions to improve quality and patient safety.
She has a broad clinical background as a nurse in both municipal and specialist healthcare services, but has worked in the university and university college sector since 2004. She earned her PhD in sociology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2011 and has held a professorship at Nord University since 2020.
Ingstad teaches and supervises at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels in subjects including methodology, sociology, organization, and leadership. She contributes to the following courses:
Bachelor’s level:
- HEL1000: The Shared Knowledge and Value Base of Health Professionals
- SYK1005: Communication, Psychology, Pedagogy, and Sociology
- SYK2004: Professional Nursing Leadership and Service Development
Master’s level:
- HEL7002: System Implementation and Service Innovation
- HEL5004: Methods for Professional Development
PhD level:
- PRO9017: Secondary Analysis: Systematic/Scoping Literature Review; Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis
Kari Ingstad is a professor with research expertise in organization, administration, and leadership within the healthcare sector. Her work primarily focuses on working life, innovation, and cross-sectoral collaboration, with particular attention to how structural and organizational conditions shape professional practice and service quality.
Ingstad has published extensively, including peer-reviewed articles, books, and edited volumes. Her research draws on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, as well as systematic literature reviews. Her work has had a notable impact on policy development and practice, particularly in areas related to work-time organization and staffing in health services.
She leads the research group Acute Care, Innovation and Patient Safety (AKIP) and is actively engaged in several national and international research collaborations. Currently, she serves as the principal investigator of OptiCare-AI, a project funded by the Research Council of Norway. This project explores new and more effective ways of task distribution in municipal healthcare services and investigates how artificial intelligence can support optimized scheduling and resource allocation.
