Call for Submissions: Special Issue on Voice in Whole Person Care & Trainee Writing Award

Posted on 2026-09-26

Exploring Voice in Relation to Whole Person Care

Voice is central to whole person care. It shapes how patients communicate their experiences, how clinicians listen and respond, and how people advocate for what matters within healthcare. Yet finding one’s voice – and having that voice genuinely heard – is not always straightforward.

This special issue of the journal invites diverse explorations of voice within healthcare encounters and experiences. Submissions might consider patients’ first-hand experiences of seeking care and the sometimes fraught process of giving voice to their feelings, needs, perceptions, and experiences within their bodies. They might also explore the ways clinicians create therapeutic spaces in which patients feel able to speak, be heard, and communicate what matters most to them.

We are also interested in the process of finding and using one’s voice in advocacy, education, and leadership. This might include trainees navigating the risks and responsibilities of questioning clinical practices that have become normalized within care settings; clinicians or educators learning to advocate for changes that better meet the needs of patients and learners; or health leaders naming neglected gaps within healthcare systems and imagining how whole person care might be practiced differently.

 

We Want to Hear Your Perspective on Voice in Whole Person Care

We welcome first-person narratives that reflect on what voice means to you in the context of whole person care. We invite you to consider questions such as:

  • How do you listen to, make space for, and amplify voices that are often marginalized within healthcare?
  • How have you found and cultivated your own voice in relation to whole person care?
  • What has supported or hindered you in finding your voice?
  • How has your voice been received by others, and how have you navigated any tensions or challenges that followed?

Submissions are welcome from patients, clinicians, educators, researchers, and health professionals at all career stages. In the spirit of amplifying a diversity of voices related to this theme, we particularly welcome submissions from people writing from their own experiences as patients, as well as people from historically marginalized backgrounds.

 

Submission Guidelines:

  • Brief paper (500-2,000 words) focused on the theme of Voice in Whole Person Care.
  • Submit via the Commentary stream in the Journal’s online portal: https://ijwpc.mcgill.ca/about/submissions
  • Please email the editorial team (ijwpc@mcgill.ca) regarding any questions.
  • Submission deadline: December 31, 2026

 

Are you currently a trainee? Submit to our Trainee Writing Award!

  • Current trainees in either a health professional clinical program or health-related research program are invited to submit a brief essay (500-2,000 words) focused on the theme of Voice in Whole Person Care.
  • Submit via the Commentary stream of IJWPC’s online portal: https://ijwpc.mcgill.ca/about/submissions
  • A selection committee will review all submissions received before the deadline and the selected submission will be published in forthcoming issue of IJWPC.
  • Please email the editorial team (ijwpc@mcgill.ca) regarding any questions.
  • Submission deadline: December 31, 2026