2025 Dr. Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2025 Dr. Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest.

Using the quote below as inspiration, medical and nursing students are asked to reflect on humanism in healthcare, drawing from their experiences as an individual or as a member of a healthcare team (doctors, nurses, therapists, patients and families, etc.). Stories about the experience of family and friends are also accepted.

Deadline: March 12 at 11:59 pm PT 

2025 Essay Prompt

Using the following quote, reflect on an experience in any healthcare setting where you or another healthcare team member worked to put the person at the center of care.

“Of all the tools in my medical bag, the most important of all is not in the bag itself – it’s my ears, to listen to the patient.” — Dr. Arnold P. Gold, pediatric neurologist and co-founder of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Criteria

Submissions may not exceed 1,000 words.

Judges will be looking for essays that directly respond to this year’s prompt and connect strongly to the Gold Foundation’s mission of humanism in healthcare for all. Winning essays will illuminate how the human connection can make a meaningful difference in care.

This contest is highly competitive. Before submitting, please carefully review your essay, considering the following criteria that will be used to select winners:
  • Reflects the contest prompt and resonates with the mission of the Gold Foundation
  • Narrative content (the piece is compelling, thought-provoking, and/or elicits a strong emotional response by the reader)
  • Demonstrates strong writing style (grammar, spelling, structure, etc)

The essay contest is open to medical students at accredited schools of medicine in the U.S. and Canada and nursing students at AACN member schools. Students at international medical schools that have a Gold Humanism Honors Society (GHHS) chapter are also eligible. Find more information under Eligibility.

Terms and Conditions

By submitting an essay, you agree to abide by the following:

  1. I am committed to protecting the right to privacy of patients and others. I have changed names where applicable, and have omitted or altered other identifying characteristics of individuals and contexts within my essay.
  2. I verify that this essay meets the ethical and HIPAA requirements of my educational institution and that I have obtained any necessary permissions to submit this essay.
  3. I grant The Arnold P. Gold Foundation permission to publish all or parts of my essay on their website, in Academic Medicine, the Journal of Professional Nursing or another academic journal, and in other venues to promote the Essay contest.
  4. I signify that I am the sole author of this essay, that I have written all sentences myself and that no sentences were written by AI, that all sources of information have been properly acknowledged, and that it has not been published elsewhere.
  5. I signify that I will not submit this essay simultaneously to other contests or publications.
  6. If my essay should win the Dr. Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest, I will postpone any further publication routes until the essay has first appeared in both Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and The Journal of Professional Nursing, of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Any subsequent shall include a note that it was originally published in Academic Medicine and The Journal of Professional Nursing (and include the full citations).
  7. The Gold Foundation reserves the right to disallow essays based on editorial, ethical or other considerations.