Satualafa'alagilagi Dr. Leinani Aiono-Le Tagaloa was born and brought up in Samoa (previously Western Samoa). She began surgical training then completed anaesthetic training. Having a FANZCA she undertook an obstetric anaesthesia fellowship and assistant professorship in the United States. Upon returning to New Zealand, Dr Tagaloa undertook a further fellowship in Pain Medicine and since obtaining her FFPMANZCA has split her work week between chronic pain at the Auckland Regional Pain Service and Anaesthesia at Auckland Hospital. She serves our college on the New Zealand National Committee and as an examiner for the Faculty of Pain Medicine. She is the founding president of the Pasifika Anaesthetists in Aoterearoa.

In this episode, we discuss the culture shock of moving from Samoa to Dunedin, her journey out of surgical specialties and into pain medicine, the trauma of racism (both external and internalised) in medicine, her growth in embracing her Samoan title and diversity, and her love for pain medicine.

As always, if you have any feedback or queries, or if you would like to get in touch with the speaker, feel free to get in touch at doctornos@pm.me.

Audio credit:
Bliss by Luke Bergs https://soundcloud.com/bergscloud
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/33DJFs9
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/e9aXhBQDT9Y

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As always, if you have any feedback or queries, or if you would like to get in touch with the speaker, feel free to get in touch at doctornos@pm.me.

Audio credit:
Bliss by Luke Bergs https://soundcloud.com/bergscloud
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/33DJFs9
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/e9aXhBQDT9Y