It wasn’t a scientific process that brought nationally known nursing researcher and leader Ann Horgas into the field of nursing education and research. Instead, a long but rewarding path of events led her to a career that she has embraced for the past 20 years.
“I wanted to be a nurse because my family had a long history of nurses,” Horgas said. “I actually always wanted to become a teacher but my parents had different ideas. I really didn’t have a grand plan.”
Once Horgas entered the university environment, she embraced the atmosphere of learning and higher education. It may seem ironic today that Horgas, a leader in research for the aging, actually wanted to be a nurse midwife and work in obstetrics. A pivotal experience during her undergraduate study actually pushed her into the gerontological nursing field.
“We had a separate course in gerontological nursing during my undergraduate degree, a rarity even by today’s standards,” Horgas said. “We had clinical experiences in a nursing home before the time when regulations had changed. I was appalled by how older adults were cared for. But later on, that experience is actually what made me want to pursue this field.”
Horgas’ plan may not have been grand, but the influences and series of events that led her to where she is today she considers a blessing.
“The Dean of my college planted the seed of a doctoral degree and she never asked me—she stated that I would go on for my PhD,” Horgas chuckled. “For my master’s thesis I worked for a professor’s research grant which was a huge amount of work but exposed me to the rigors and the interdisciplinary nature of health care research.
“It changed my life.”
As a PhD student and research assistant, Horgas worked toward improving care for older adults in nursing homes. While completing the last year of her dissertation research, she accepted a part-time nursing position in a long-term care facility. This full circle back to patient care from doctoral research showed Horgas how research could be directly connected to patient care.
“Here I was, in my doctoral program, immersed in books and research, and yet when I went back into bedside care, I realized that what I was trying to do could and would make an impact for patients and for health care professionals. It truly was illuminating,” Horgas said.
Even more enlightening was what Horgas observed during her position at the facility. She realized the great unknown issues that existed around pain in these elderly patients. When they complained about pain, they were mostly ignored or brushed aside.
Fifteen years later, she is an established researcher in the area of pain and aging, building on a long-term program to assess pain in nursing home residents with dementia. She has just completed a major research study on this topic funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research.
Horgas is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Gerontological Society of America and has been awarded the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing Research and the Springer Award in Geriatric/Gerontologic Nursing. She has co-authored a book on dealing with behavioral problems in nursing homes and has written numerous publications on topics such as pain, everyday competence in old age and mental health in aging.
But one of the most rewarding parts of her career has been her interaction with students at all levels, from the PhD students she supervises to the undergraduate honors students who work on her research projects.
“It’s been so wonderful to be able to see what these students are able to achieve,” Horgas said. “Several of my honors students have gone on to graduate school and expanded upon research that they have started with me. Our students are so incredibly bright; I just want them to know the incredible opportunities that exist in nursing.”
One might say Ann Horgas is a living example.