Confessions of a Sin Eater

Dr. Therese Zink, teacher, clinician and researcher, explores the burden, mystery and privilege of doctoring. As a family physician, the act of listening and holding stories is a vital part of healing for both the patients and the healer. In this collection, Dr. Zink shares stories she gathered while caring for patients in a domestic violence shelter, on the Navajo reservation, in Nazran, Ingushetia (Russia), on mission trips in Latin America and in her clinic in rural Minnesota. Confessions of a Sin Eater lays bare the human heart of the author and reveals the best and worst of our journeys as humans. Discussion questions are included.

As a family physician, the act of listening and holding a patient’s story is a vital part of healing for both the patient and the healer. The telling of a story gives the storyteller the ability to shape his/her experience and to gain some control over the events. The generous listening and receiving of the story heals both the storyteller and the doctor/healer. In this collection, Dr. Zink explores the burden, mystery and privilege of doctoring. She shares stories gathered during her twenty plus years of practice in a variety of venues--while caring for patients in a domestic violence shelter, on the Navajo reservation, during a high-risk volunteer stint in Nazran, Ingushetia (Russia), on mission trips in Latin America and in her clinic in rural Minnesota. Confessions of a Sin Eater lays bare the human heart of the author and reveals the best and worst of our journeys as humans. She examines the burdens of bearing witness and the challenge of seeing the impact of the darkest act--where one human intentionally harms someone they love. She explores the limits of her treatments and medications for healing, the uncertainties of her craft, the reality that some of her actions cause pain and that her mistakes can harm and ultimately kill her patients. Unbeknownst to her patients, she recognizes the unexpected gifts they have given her. She reflects on her own woundedness and how ministering to the wounds of her patients has in turn healed her. Discussion questions are included

Dr. Therese Zink is a family physician and professor at the University of Minnesota where she cares for patients, teaches and does research. She has written award-winning stories on doctoring. Her work has been published in both literary and medical journals as well as anthologies. She edited The Country Doctor Revisited: A 21st Century Reader (Kent State University, 2010), stories, poems and essays about rural health care today and Becoming a Doctor: Reflections by Minnesota Medical Students (Univeristy of Minnesota, 2011), a literary portrait of the many steps along the path to becoming a physician. Zink believes that reflection is an important ingredient for professionalism and staying grounded as a physician. She enjoys helping medical students write and publish the “interesting stories” that they post in on-line discussions or share during “significant event reflection” sessions while on their family medicine clerkships. She lives on twenty acres in Minnesota.