U. nurse awarded $500,000 fellowship

Sarah Kagan faces a happy dilemma -- figuring out what to do with $500,000.

Penn's professor and gerontological nurse was named one of this year's 24 MacArthur Fellows on Sunday.

"It's a tremendous honor," Kagan said. "I also think that it's a great responsibility."

Kagan is the second nurse to ever receive a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius award." The first was another Penn alumna.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has named 20 to 25 fellows each year since 1981. The group of fellows -- which include scientists, writers and artists -- are chosen for the creativity and originality of their work, as well as their potential for accomplishment in the future.

Each fellow receives $500,000 over five years, to utilize as he or she sees fit.

Kagan teaches at the University, works as a gerontological nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also researches ways to improve health care for elderly adults suffering from cancer.

Kagan said that she has been touched by the outpour of support from other nurses -- the hallway outside her office was filled with well-wishers all of yesterday morning.

"I was like, 'What are you all doing?'" Kagan said, laughing. "Get back to work!"

But it has not only been her close colleagues who have sent their congratulations.

"Nurses from all over the country who don't know me e-mailed me to say thanks for getting the award," she said. "I am amazed that people who don't really know me would find pride and hope in such an award."

She's not yet sure what to do with her $500,000 -- which she called "an unimaginable amount of money" -- though she has some ideas, such as spending her sabbatical next year writing a book about aging and cancer.

"I hope I can figure out creative ways to use the stipend and visibility that comes with it to heighten attention, educate people more effectively [and] propel me to achieve what I want to achieve in a better way," she said.

"I can hope that with this kind of acknowledgement, I can do what I've always been working at... but perhaps in a way that draws more people's attention to the intellectual side of nursing," she added.

Bringing together the intellectual and practical sides of nursing is exactly what Kagan aims to accomplish -- as she explained, not many nurses with Ph.D.s still treat patients.

But Kagan believes in an integrated approach to nursing. For her, there is no conflict between practicing as a nurse, doing research and teaching classes.

"I am a somewhat more unusual kind of nurse," she said.

Kagan has worked at Penn for almost 10 years.

"Penn is the only school where I could do what I want to do.... I can do research, education and practice without giving up one or the other."

Her former student, Michelle Macaluso, called Kagan's approach to nursing "very forward thinking."

"That's what nursing should be," Macaluso said.

Kagan added that her patients provide constant inspiration and "really keep [her] going."

"My students and my patients have clearly been what's kept me here,"she said.

Afaf Meleis, dean of the School of Nursing, wrote in an e-mail that Kagan "brings honor to our school and to nursing."

"This award brings with it accolades and acknowledgement of Dr. Kagan's accomplishments as a clinical scholar who... utilizes, translates and evaluates best practices in caring for the elderly with cancer," she wrote.

Fellows are nominated and selected through a top-secret, anonymous process. There are no applications. Fellows simply receive a phone call from Jonathan Fanton, the president of the foundation.

The MacArthur Foundation is one of the nation's largest private philanthropic foundations, and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since 1978.

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