Samantha Horvath
RN, MSc, PhD (c)

Research and expertise

• Background and interests

  Samantha Horvath is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ontario Tech University. Her research examines how nursing and advanced practice nurse (APN) (including nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist) models of care can enhance emergency health care services, and access to care. She uses mixed methods approaches to link APN roles to patient, provider and health system outcomes.

  Samantha brings clinical experience in emergency and pediatric nursing as a registered nurse, previously at SickKids, Joseph Brant Hospital, and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). She has also held progressive positions at HHS including nurse clinician educator at McMaster Children’s Hospital Pediatric Ambulatory Clinics and leadership positions at Juravinski Hospital Operating Rooms and Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre Pediatric Ambulatory Clinics. Samantha’s doctoral dissertation was an explanatory sequential mixed methods study of APN emergency department models of care across all five Ontario health regions. She is co-author of the “Nurse-Sensitive Outcomes” chapter in Foundations of Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice (4^th ed.) and brings this outcomes lens to her teaching and student supervision.

  Research interests

  • Advanced practice nursing models of care
  • Emergency department care delivery and health system performance
  • Nurse-sensitive outcomes and APN role evaluation
  • Clinical nurse specialist role integration
  • APN non-clinical practice domains
  • Nursing workforce, retention and mentorship
  • Health policy and nursing scope of practice
  • Patient and family/caregiver experiences in the emergency department
  • Leadership impact on emergency department nurses
  • Mixed methods research
• Education
  • PhD, Nursing, McMaster University, 2026 (conferral November 2026)
  • MSc, Nursing, McMaster University, 2021
  • BScN, Nursing, McMaster University, 2018
• Courses taught

  Current/Recent courses at Ontario Tech University

  • NURS 1100U - Introduction to Health and Healing, Instructor
  • NURS 2420U - Knowing Through Inquiry, Instructor
• Publications
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6881-4882 
  • Bryant-Lukosius, D., Rietkoetter, S., Balonjan, K., Audet, L., Horvath, S., Lucchese, S., Savard, I. & Splane, J. Nurse-Sensitive Outcomes. (2026). Chapter in J.S. Fulton, K.A. Goudreau & Y.K.L. Swartzell. (Eds.). Foundations of Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice (4^th ed., pp 65-87). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826179234.0005
  • Horvath, S., Visekruna, S., Kilpatrick, K., McCallum, M. & Carter, N. (2025). Ontario emergency department models of care with nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists. Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 38(2). https://doi:10.12927/cjnl.2025.27719
  • Horvath, S. & Carter, N. (2024). Closing gaps in emergency care: The vital role of advanced practice nurses in serving populations, Canadian Journal of Emergency Nursing, 47(1). https://doi.org/10.29173/cjen229
  • Horvath, S., Visekruna, S., Kilpatrick, K., McCallum, M. & Carter, N. (2023). Models of care with advanced practice nurses in the emergency department: A scoping review. International Journal of Nursing Studies,148,104608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2023.104608
  • Splane, J., Horvath, S., Ziegler, E., Savard, I., Carter, N., Kilpatrick, K., Bryant-Lukosius, D. & Martin-Misener, R. (2022). Retention of advanced practice nurses: What will it take? Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 36(2). https://doi:10.12927/cjnl.2023.27126
  • Horvath, S. & Carter, N. (2022). Emergency nurses’ perceptions of leadership strategies and intention to leave: A scoping review of the literature. Canadian Journal of Emergency Nursing, 45(2), p.11-23. https://doi.org/10.29173/cjen138
• Graduate student research

  Samantha Horvath is building a research team of undergraduate and graduate students interested in how advanced practice nurses (APNs), including nurse practitioners (NPs) and clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), shape care, outcomes and health system performance across patient populations. Her doctoral research found that more than half of Ontario emergency department APN models of care had no formal evaluation in place. Students on her team will help generate the evidence needed to design, implement, evaluate and sustain these roles.

  Samantha welcomes students from nursing, health sciences, health policy and related disciplines.

  Students are sought for:

  • Evaluating APN models of care in emergency departments, using administrative data such as length of stay, left-without-being-seen rates and return visits
  • Nurse-sensitive outcomes, measurement tools, and evaluation frameworks for NP and CNS roles
  • APN policy, regulation, and scope of practice in Ontario
  • Visibility and integration of CNS roles in acute care
  • Emergency nurse retention and mentorship, including scoping reviews and workforce survey research
  • Education needs and professional development for advanced practice nurses
  • Research assistant roles in literature searches, scoping reviews, environmental scans and data management
  • Knowledge translation and dissemination
  • Undergraduate research practicums

  Interested? Email Samantha Horvath at Samantha.horvath2@ontariotechu.ca with:

  • Your CV
  • A brief statement (one page or less) describing your research interests and how they connect to her program
• Other professional information

  ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samantha_Horvath4?ev=hdr_xprf
  LinkedIn: https:\\www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-horvath-rn-msc-61756b28

  Research domains: promoting health in vulnerable individuals/groups: personal, social, environmental and global determinants of health & Critically inquiring into the human health experience