Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston Associate Professor Amy O. Calvin, PhD, RN, received the 2023 Emma Josephine and Emily Josephine Spirituality in Nursing Award from the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the organization’s annual conference in Houston on Oct. 13.

The award recognizes Calvin’s key role in establishing the nursing school’s Prayer Group in 2014 and her ongoing leadership as its faculty advisor. The Prayer Group provides biweekly opportunities for students to come together and support one another in prayer, regardless of their spiritual/religious beliefs. It seeks to provide social, emotional, mental, and spiritual support with the goal of enriching student lives holistically from a perspective of faith.

Calvin has received numerous awards and is widely published on the topics of end-of-life care and pain management, and she carries this holistic perspective forward as she teaches undergraduate didactic and clinical courses.

“In the clinical setting, students struggle especially with helping patients spiritually, so I offer guidance,” Calvin said. “In addition, I remind students that to care holistically for patients, they need to nurture their own spirituality to ‘fill their own tanks.’”

Calvin joined the Cizik School of Nursing faculty in 2001 after studying and conducting research at The University of Texas at Austin, where she earned an MSN and a PhD in nursing. She earned a BSN from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.