54 | Dr. Sally Langley on solo parenting, music & plastic surgery

Doctor NOS

Dr. Sally Langley is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, who is based in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has worked in both public and private surgery in Christchurch and the West Coast of the South Island for more than 30 years. Her work has covered the whole spectrum of plastic surgery including craniofacial, cleft lip and palate, head and neck, paediatric, reconstructive including microsurgery, hand surgery, as well as skin cancer and breast surgery. She has has experienced being part of plastic surgery visits to a number of developing countries including Samoa and Tonga with Interplast Australia and New Zealand, Vietnam with the New Zealand Vietnam Heath Trust, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Mali with Interplast, rebranded as ReSurge. Her last trip was to Mali in 2012. She has been an EMSB instructor in Papua New Guinea.
Dr. Langley has been involved with surgical education and training throughout her career. She was an examiner in plastic and reconstructive surgery for nine years and for two years she served as the New Zealand deputy Chair of the Court of Examiners, the entity which conducts the Fellowship exam of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). She is a faculty member for the Surgeons as Leaders course.
Dr. Langley is a former president of the New Zealand Association of Plastic Surgeons. In 2014 she was elected member of the RACS Council where she chaired the Professional Standards and Development Board from 2019 till 2021. Since May 2021 Dr Langley is the RACS President.

Sally is married to Don Miskell. Sally’s son Sam is married with one son and Don’s three children are married all with children. That makes nine grandchildren. Sally has an ageing mother who she attends to. Sally enjoys family activities, running, swimming, gym, tramping and music.
In this episode, we discuss her journey into medicine, her love for music, navigating solo parenting as a teenager and throughout surgical training, her work as president of RACS, the challenges they are facing (bullying/harassment, inequity of surgical healthcare access for rural communities, environmental sustainability) and her work in plastic surgery.
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 [e-mail].

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

Support the show

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 [e-mail].

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

Kapitler

1. Sally Langley (00:00:00)

2. Finding medicine (00:01:23)

3. Positive factors for getting into training (00:09:31)

4. Managing solo parenting (00:10:40)

5. Music's role in Sally's life (00:13:56)

6. Music and surgery (00:17:28)

7. Day-to-day routine in plastics (00:19:37)

8. Passion for teaching/training (00:23:12)

9. RACS current issues (00:24:14)

10. Cultural shifts in RACS (00:29:26)

11. Environmental sustainability in surgery (00:31:48)

12. Rural health prioritisation in RACS (00:33:00)

13. Women in RACS (00:35:59)

14. Challenges faced - titling/untitling (00:43:35)

15. Applicants for plastics (00:45:50)

16. Reflections (00:48:42)