Mini Blog: 2 minutes with...Luciana Blaga
Mini Blog: 2 minutes with...Luciana Blaga
Meet new NZPS Council member Luciana in the next 'mini-blog' instalment...
1. What is your current role/job/position?
I am an Occupational Therapist at Dunedin Public Hospital. I work 0.5 in Acute Physical Inpatients/Surgical and 0.2 in Pain management outpatients. Despite the apparent difference between the two clinical areas, I see patients along the continuum from acute pain to persistent pain, or persistent pain patients looking for a fix with surgery.
2. How did you get into working in Pain Management?
As an occupational therapy student I had a fieldwork placement in Pain Management that sparked my interest in this clinical area. As part of Honours year I took a paper in Pain Management to further this new interest. Several years later, while working in Acute physical I was lucky enough to have been offered the opportunity to actually use the knowledge acquired during the honours year. It happened that the job offer was with the same team I had my student placement.
3. If you weren't working in Pain Management what would you be doing?
Very likely I would be even more involved in local/national gymnastic community as a rhythmic gymnastics coach. I would also spend more hours sailing on the family Noelex 22 trailer yacht. And I would take up fly fishing.
4. If you could invite any 3 people to have dinner, who would you choose and why?
Queen Maria of Romania (Regina Maria), my great-grandmother Maria and Fred Astaire. They are all people that I admire and that I would’ve liked to meet.
5. What is the most important advance you hope will be made in Pain in the next ten years?
A presence of allied health clinicians involved in pain management education in Primary Care.