Posted on Categories Introduction / Voices from the Residents / Benjamin Drum, MD, PhD, Kathryn Schmidt, MD, Britt Hultgren, MD, Amy N. Cowan, MD, Susan Sample, PhD, MFA & Sara Lamb, MD

2020 Voices from the Residents, Introduction

A collection of 55-word stories from residents at the University of Utah

Voices from Residents 2020 is a forum for residents from the University of Utah School of Medicine to share stories of their experiences in medicine; to promote resilience and prevent professional burn-out by normalizing vulnerabilities experienced in medicine; to provide role-modeling for medical students; and to showcase the creative talents of residents.  Through (roughly) 55-word narratives, Voices from Residents transmits emotional knowledge about the art of medicine gained through caring for patients, interacting with family members, and navigating changing and demanding schedules. Resident writing bears witness to experiences that occur when operating in the space of expert yet learner, and how to navigate the emotional, psychological, and existential challenges often confronted yet frequently silenced in the culture of medicine. In the curation of this collection, three themes emerged: a focus on learning, handling emotion, and struggling with limitations of medical care.

Part One: The Learning Process
Pleomorphism
Multiple Hats
Residency Drifting by
The First Day
Medical School: A One Act Play
Just Keep Breathing
20/20
Room by Room

Part Two: The Handling of Emotion
Inadequate
Q&A
Dear Mike,
Okurimono*
New Patient Visit: Sibling Exam after Death of Sister
Wake
Crossed Wires
Running His Mouth
Hospice

Part Three: The Inadequacy of Care
Mrs. T
Mangled Hand
Palpable Fine Needle Aspiration, Left Thigh, Huntsman Clinic 2C
Full-time Job
Laundry
Safety Symbiosis
Nursery (After Jack Gilbert)

Editorial Staff: Ben Drum, Kathryn Schmidt, Britt Hultgren
Faculty Support: Amy Cowan, Susan Sample, Sara Lamb

2020 Voices from the Residents, Introduction, Introduction by Benjamin Drum, MD, PhD, Kathryn Schmidt, MD, Britt Hultgren, MD, Amy N. Cowan, MD, Susan Sample, PhD, MFA & Sara Lamb, MD

Benjamin Drum, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of General Internal Medicine

Ben is a hospitalist with clinical interests in medical humanities, medical resident selection, and ultrasound. He has had medical humanities pieces published in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, Families, Systems, and Health, Ars Medica, The Intima, and others.

Voices from the Housestaff:
2023 Faculty Support
2022 Chief Editor

2022 Prose, "Med Clearance"
2022 Poem, "Lying"

Voices from the Faculty:
2025, "Tabula Rasa"
2024, "Alcoholic Hepatitis"
2022 Prose, "Initial Management of Acute Onset Chronic Imposter Syndrome"

Voices from the Residents:
2021 Editor in Chief
2020 Co-editor

2021 Prose, "Fever"
2021 Poem, "Wizard"
2021 Poem, "The benefit of the doubt"
2020 Prose, "Running His Mouth"
2020 Poem, "Med-amorphosis"
2020 Poem, "Gallbladder Pain"
2019 Poem, "Hospital Tourism" View more for Benjamin Drum, MD, PhD →

Kathryn Schmidt, MD

Department of Internal Medicine

Voices from the Residents:
2022 Front Cover Design
2021 Editorial Staff
2021 Front Cover Art
2020 Co-editor
2020 Front Cover Art View more for Kathryn Schmidt, MD →

Britt Hultgren, MD

Family Medicine

Voices from the Residents:
2021 Editorial Staff
2020 Co-editor View more for Britt Hultgren, MD →

Amy N. Cowan, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine

Amy is a clinician and clinical educator. She works daily to unpack her own biases and racism. She holds doors open for people who don’t look just like her. She challenges her learners to understand their own racial identity especially around whiteness and choose something different from the status quo.

Voices from the Faculty:
2020, Editorial Board
2020, "I'm White and I Live Segregated"

Voices from the Residents:
2021, Faculty Support
2020, Faculty Support View more for Amy N. Cowan, MD →

Susan Sample, PhD, MFA

Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Internal Medicine

Director, Initiative in Narrative, Medicine & Writing; Center for Health Ethics, Arts & Humanities, Medical Ethics, University of Utah Health Sciences
Writer-in-Residence, Huntsman Cancer Institute

Voices from the Faculty:
2022, Editorial Board
2021, Editorial Board
2020, Editorial Board

Voices from the Residents:
2021 Faculty Support
2020 Faculty Support View more for Susan Sample, PhD, MFA →

Sara Lamb, MD

Associate Dean, Curriculum & Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine

Sara is an internist, pediatrician, educator, administrator, mom, daughter, wife, sister... all of which swirl together and intimately influence her experience of caring for others, AND make her life in medicine the most rewarding and challenging of all of the professional and life pursuits she could have imagined.

Voices from the Faculty:
2025, Editorial Board
2024, Editorial Board
2022, Editorial Board
2021, Editorial Board
2020, Editorial Board

2021, "This is Real"
2020, "Wish"
2020, "3" View more for Sara Lamb, MD →