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Susan J. Sample

Susan J. Sample, PhD, MFA

Languages spoken: English

Clinical Locations

  • Linda B. and Robert B. Wiggins Wellness Center

    801-587-4585
  • Susan J. Sample directs the Initiative in Narrative, Medicine, and Writing at the Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Utah Health Sciences. She is assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Writer-in-Residence at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). She received her BA in philosophy from Whitman College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arizona. She completed her Ph.D. in communication, focusing on rhetoric and medicine, from the U of U. Her research explores the rhetorical ways physicians and patients use narrative, particularly how physician-trainees use narrative when writing about experiences with patients at the end of life. She teaches medical humanities and reflective writing in the School of Medicine. She also is the faculty advisor for the Physicians Literature and Medicine Discussion Group, facilitator for the Resident Physician Writing Group, and a faculty advisor for the medical students' literary journal, Rubor: Reflections on Medicine from the Wasatch Front. At HCI, Dr. Sample guides patients, caregivers, physicians, and staff in reflecting upon and writing about their experiences. She offer workshops as well as individual writing consultation. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Terrible Grace (2011) and Some Unsayable Blue (2019), both published by Finishing Line Press. In spring 2021, she published Voices of Teenage Transplant Survivors: Miracle-Like (Emerald Publishing), which describes poetry workshops she led for 12 years and the poems produced by the teens who had heart, liver, and kidney transplants. Her poetry has appeared in journals ranging from literary journals, including Tupelo Quarterly, to medical journals, including JAMA and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

    Specialties

    Board Certification and Academic Information

    Academic Departments Internal Medicine - Primary
  • Susan J. Sample directs the Initiative in Narrative, Medicine, and Writing at the Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Utah Health Sciences. She is assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Writer-in-Residence at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). She received her BA in philosophy from Whitman College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arizona. She completed her Ph.D. in communication, focusing on rhetoric and medicine, from the U of U. Her research explores the rhetorical ways physicians and patients use narrative, particularly how physician-trainees use narrative when writing about experiences with patients at the end of life. She teaches medical humanities and reflective writing in the School of Medicine. She also is the faculty advisor for the Physicians Literature and Medicine Discussion Group, facilitator for the Resident Physician Writing Group, and a faculty advisor for the medical students' literary journal, Rubor: Reflections on Medicine from the Wasatch Front. At HCI, Dr. Sample guides patients, caregivers, physicians, and staff in reflecting upon and writing about their experiences. She offer workshops as well as individual writing consultation. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Terrible Grace (2011) and Some Unsayable Blue (2019), both published by Finishing Line Press. In spring 2021, she published Voices of Teenage Transplant Survivors: Miracle-Like (Emerald Publishing), which describes poetry workshops she led for 12 years and the poems produced by the teens who had heart, liver, and kidney transplants. Her poetry has appeared in journals ranging from literary journals, including Tupelo Quarterly, to medical journals, including JAMA and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

    Board Certification and Academic Information

    Academic Departments Internal Medicine -Primary

    Research interests

    • Personal Narratives [Publication Type]
    • Rhetoric of Medicine
    • Narrative Theory
    • Rhetorics of Silence
    • Discourse Analysis
    • Material Rhetoric and Body Studies

    Education history

    Doctoral Training Communication with Emphasis in Rhetoric and Writing Studies - University of Utah Ph.D.
    Narrative and Medicine - University of Utah Fellow
    Graduate Training Creative Writing - University of Arizona M.F.A.
    Philosophy - Whitman College B.A.