Horsburgh, Dr Margaret

Jocelyn Peach
Jul 19, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Jan 6

Board member of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Trust

RGON, RM, EdD, MA (Hons), Dip Ed, FCNA(NZ)

Dr Margaret Phyllis Elsie Horsburgh CNZM (née Rickard; born in Auckland 1943) is a New Zealand nurse academic who established the school of nursing at the University of Auckland and worked as a nurse educator for over 30 years.

Margaret Rickard was educated at Diocesan School for Girls. She began training as a nurse at Auckland Hospital Board School of Nursing in 1961. After registration she worked on surgical ward at Green Lane Hospital until she travelled to Europe. She worked in London as a private nurse and completed a one year midwife programme in 1966. She returned to New Zealand to work at Green lane Hospital in the cardiothoracic unit where she completed the post graduate course in at Green Lane Hospital in the Cardio-thoracic unit and completed a post-graduate course in Cardio-thoracic nursing. She was appointed charge nurse of the Intensive Care Unit, later worked as supervising sister running and teaching the cardio-thoracic course.

Margaret became a nurse tutor and lecturer at Auckland Institute of Technology (AIT) in 1976. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Auckland in 1978. She gained a Diploma in Education at Auckland University in 1983 and a Masters of Arts in Education (First Class Honours) in 1987 as her interest in education continued to grow.

In 1987, Margaret Horsburgh was appointed the Head of the School of Nursing at AIT. She developed, as a team, a consultancy company which would get contracts to write academic papers and do curriculum development. From 1988 to 1990 Margaret was the Deputy Chairperson of the Nursing Council of New Zealand. Throughout the 1990s Margaret took on various roles and projects: as Northern Regional Manager of the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand; as academic director working on establishing a degree programme for nursing at AIT.

She completed a doctorate on quality education at Charles Sturt University, Australia in 1998, with a thesis titled Quality monitoring in higher education: a case study of the impact on student learning.

In 1999, Margaret left AIT (now Auckland University of Technology) to establish a school of nursing at the University of Auckland. She held the positions of Assistant Dean and Director of Nursing between 1999 and 2002, Associate Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (2002-2004) and Associate Professor of Nursing (2004-2009). Margaret is currently an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.

Margaret Horsburgh has undertaken a number of roles since 2000: was the first chair of the New Zealand Nurse Practitioners Advisory Committee in 2001. She was elected to the Auckland District Health Board from 2000 to 2004 and was then appointed by the Minister of Health as deputy chair to Wayne Brown (one of the appointed members). She joined the board of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Trust in 2004. She was appointed the Auckland regional field adviser by the New Zealand Walking Access Commission in 2015.