Speakers - Dr. Karen Bjøro

Dr. Karen Bjøro
RN, MSN, PhD

Dr. Karen Bjøro is an advocate for Nursing and Global Health. She is 2nd Vice President of the International Council of Nurses (2021-2025) and ICN board member (2017-2021). Karen Bjøro is currently a faculty member of the ICN Global Nursing Leadership Institute™ . She is a member of the Norwegian Nurses Organization (NNO) and served as 2nd Vice President of the NNO from 2011-2019.

Since 2016 Karen Bjøro served as board member of the European Forum of National Nurses and Midwives Associations (EFNNMA), a non-state actor that collaborates closely with the WHO Regional Office for Europe. She represented the NNO at European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) (2011-2019) and served as president and board member of the European Nursing Research Foundation (2015-2019).

Karen Bjøro has nearly 40 years of experience in nursing. She was engaged as Associate professor of nursing at the University of Oslo to introduce the first geriatric nurse practitioner programme in 2011. As Chief nursing officer of Ullevål University Hospital from 1997-2001 she was head of  advanced clinical nursing programs, forerunners to ANP masters programs.

Dr Bjøro received her PhD in Gerontological Nursing from the University of Iowa, USA (2008) and a Masters degree in nursing administration from the University of Oslo (1999). She has a certificate in Intensive Care Nursing (1987). She received a diploma in nursing from the Aker Nursing College in Oslo, Norway, 1982.