This winter, two distinguished researchers with a combined 66 years of teaching experience joined the Connell School faculty as associate professors: alumna Elizabeth Howard, who takes a data-driven and strengths-based approach to studying the aging population, and Corrine Jurgens, an expert on biobehavioral factors of cardiovascular health.
Elizabeth Howard
Associate Professor
Elizabeth Howard, M.S. 鈥�79, Ph.D. 鈥�86, RN, ACNP, ANP-51茶馆, FAAN, returns to her alma mater after spending the last 30 years four miles away, as an associate professor at Northeastern University鈥檚 Bouv. College of Health Sciences. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the InterRAI Network in Integrated Care and Aging, and a distinguished scholar and fellow of the National Academies of Practice, Howard uses data science to develop comprehensive assessments of 鈥渧ulnerable, underserved older adults in the US and abroad.鈥�
She found a calling in older adult care after witnessing the divergent experiences of her grandmother and great-aunt, identical twins. 鈥淭hey had immigrated to the US as teenagers from Poland,鈥� says Howard. 鈥淥ne lived to be 95, the other 96. But my great-aunt never lost her cognitive abilities, and my grandmother did. They lived very different lives, and they showed that it isn鈥檛 just genetics but what you鈥檙e exposed to that can influence how you age.鈥�
Howard has developed a 鈥渉ealthy aging鈥� intervention that 鈥渆ncourages the geriatric population to set personal goals. 鈥榃hat do you value in this phase of your life?鈥� Typically, when we see older adults in practice, we find out what鈥檚 wrong with them. This intervention follows with some regular coaching to see how they鈥檙e fulfilling these opportunities [and] strategizing with them on how they may help better meet their goals.鈥�
“It isn鈥檛 just genetics but what you鈥檙e exposed to that can influence how you age.”
Since 1995, Howard has worked as an acute care nurse practitioner in Harvard Vanguard Medical Group鈥檚 urgent care department in Wellesley. She鈥檚 also an adjunct scientist at Hebrew SeniorLife鈥檚 Marcus Institute for Aging Research and a research consultant for Israel鈥檚 Ministry of Health. During the spring semester, she cotaught Primary Care of Adults and Older Adults Theory II with Associate Professor Jane Flanagan.
Corrine Jurgens
Associate Professor
Corrine Jurgens, Ph.D., RN, ANP-51茶馆, FAHA, FHSFA, FAAN, arrives at the Connell School after 25 years at New York鈥檚 Stony Brook University, where she was most recently an associate professor and director of cardiovascular nursing research.
The Cape Cod native has served as a nurse in critical, intensive, and emergency departments. But it was during her stint in the 1980s as a coronary care nurse at St. John鈥檚 Episcopal Hospital on Long Island that she developed an interest in what would become her research focus: biobehavioral factors underpinning symptom perception among patients with heart failure. 鈥淚 was fascinated,鈥� she says, 鈥渢hat although patients would be acutely short of breath, when I asked how they were doing, between gasps they would say, 鈥楩ine.鈥欌��
In studies published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, Research in Nursing & Health, and elsewhere, Jurgens has found that 鈥渕any patients have trouble monitoring their symptoms鈥� for several reasons. Those with heart failure 鈥減rogressively slow down, and tend not to exert themselves enough to realize they鈥檙e short of breath,鈥� she explained. Also, 鈥渋f you don鈥檛 have anxiety about your symptoms, if you don鈥檛 have the emotional component, you鈥檙e less apt to register them.鈥�
With funding from the American Heart Association, Jurgens developed and psychometrically tested an instrument that measures signs and symptoms of heart failure. It has been used in several investigations and has been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Chinese.
Jurgens earned an M.S. from Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and did her postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. At Stony Brook, she also supervised more than 30 doctoral聽dissertations, and was 鈥渄evoted to coaching a diverse range of economically disadvantaged undergraduates, to successfully bring them into the nursing profession on equal footing.鈥� She plans to do the same at Boston College. During the spring semester, Jurgens taught Secondary Data Analysis to Ph.D. students.
Research focus
Biobehavioral factors underpinning symptom perception among patients with heart failure