The Lancet Respiratory Medicine's call for Essays

Abstract

Science and literature often go hand-in-hand, and can cut, either literally or metaphorically, to the core of an issue, changing peoples' minds and perspective. We are therefore running once again an Essay competition and putting out a call to all budding authors working, studying, and researching on the frontline. Do you have a burning issue or clinical experience on which you wish to comment? Essays should be pieces of prose on any topic related to respiratory medicine or critical care and intensive medicine, and should be no more than 1500 words. Please see previously published Essays for examples of winning submissions. The deadline for submission is Oct 15, 2015. Entries will be judged anonymously by our editors, and the winner will receive a £400 prize and be published in print and online in December 2015. Fires and strikes: the politics of powerThe sun bursts through my window as it does every morning, lighting up the room and sidelining my alarm clock. But it feels different this morning. It is still bright and hot and humid. It smells the same…of course, it is quiet. It's never quiet. Where is the customary racket of motorbikes and music and barking and bellowing? I have come to accept, and even expect change, but this worries me. I scramble out of my mosquito net and look through the window. A stray cow munches on some rubbish but otherwise there is no sign of activity. Full-Text PDF Black nightMy first shift in the intensive care unit was forgettable. Full-Text PDF Patient, Doctor, Father, SonMrs Thompson made her way across the oncology waiting room slowly, carefully pushing the wheeled walker adorned with assorted stickers and laden with two cloth shopping bags. Our nurse Barbara was preparing to check her into the examination room, a process that promised to be laborious. You have time, she knowingly informed me, realising that Mrs Thompson was the last patient of the morning and that I would like to eat my sandwich before starting a visit which could take most of the lunch hour. Barbara was correct. Full-Text PDF