Kari Martinsen (born 1943) is a Norwegian nurse and academic, whose work focuses on nursing theory. After competing nursing training and working as a psychiatric nurse, she returned to school to earn a bachelor's, master's and PhD degree. Developing ideas about the philosophy involved in taking care of other people, she moved away from practicing nursing and turned toward academia. She taught at various universities in Norway and Denmark and was recognized as a Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav for nursing by the Norwegian crown in 2011.