I Dream of a Needle / Articulate, Please / When the Screen Retracts

Authors

  • Susan Sample University of Utah School of Medicine

Keywords:

pain, biopsy, dying, medical training, healing

Abstract

The attached three poems focus on existential and emotional consequences of medical practices from professional and personal perspectives.  In "I Dream of a Needle," I write as a daughter watching my father undergo a bone marrow biopsy while the oncologist assures me the procedure doesn't cause pain.  In "Articulate, Please," I write as a medical school faculty member responding to a student traumatized during her first time "pronouncing" a patient.  In the final poem, "When the Screen Retracts," I write as a member of a healthcare team participating in a remembrance ceremony to help families and caregivers of recently deceased patients heal. For nine years, I've worked as the writer-in-residence at a comprehensive cancer center, guiding patients and family as they make sense of ther cancer experiences.  The remembrance ceremony stood out as an occasion where I could help all of us find words to express an inexpressible aspect of patient care.

 

Author Biography

Susan Sample, University of Utah School of Medicine

I am an assistant professor in the Program in Medical Ethics & Humanities, Department of Internal Medicine, at the University of Utah School of Medicine where I teach medical trainees and faculty in narrative, reflective writing, and narrative ethics.  I  also am the writer-in-residence at the University's Huntsman Cancer Institute, a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.  I guide patients, families, and caregivers in writing about their experiences under the auspices of the Wellness and Integrative Health Center.  Last month, I published Voices of Teenage Transplant Survivors:  Miracle-Like (Emerald Publishing), a collection of illness narratives by an under-recognized patient population that I worked with for 12 years.  I also published two chapbooks with Finishing Line Press, Terrible Grace (2011) and Some Unsayable Blue (2019).  My poetry has appeared in journals ranging from Tupelo Quarterly to JAMA and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

My credentials include a PhD in communication with an emphasis in rhetoric of medicine and narrative from the University of Utah and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona.

Downloads

Published

2025-02-04

How to Cite

Sample, S. (2025). I Dream of a Needle / Articulate, Please / When the Screen Retracts. Ars Medica, 19(1). Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2359

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Poetry