An Interview with Wissal, a Recent Medical School Graduate from Algeria.

Medicine and healthcare services are among the most important human rights services. Whether poor or rich, high class or low class, men or women, every individual has the right to access and benefit from the healthcare system. Thus, the healthcare system responsible for this should provide excellent care to those in need. However, unfortunately, the health facilities system, like any other sector of the Algerian system, is corrupt and disregards the supervisory policy. Therefore, any health service might become insufficient, chaotic, or misrepresented to the people in need. It can also have a detrimental impact on healthcare providers such as doctors, nurses, surgeons, opticians, dentists, etc. Moreover, to some extent, the association of traditional beliefs and myths with medical procedures, which was mainly formed by low socioeconomic status people, proves beyond reasonable doubt, that society also contributes partially to the low-quality healthcare.

For further information on this matter, I interviewed Wissal, a recent graduate doctor who is also a digital content creator, to learn more about her journey in medicine as well as to gain distinct insight into the medicine field and healthcare system in Algeria nowadays.

Could you please introduce yourself?

I’m Wissal, 25 years old recent medical graduate, I graduated in October 2022 I’m just going to say I’m a doctor “[laughter]”, I’m a freshly graduated doctor. I am also digital content creator. When life is good, I like to create and share scientific contents. But most of time I ghost my followers, so there is that. So yeah, that’s in a nutshell who I am.

What is your story with the medicine field?

As cliché as it may sound, when I was 17 years old and passing my baccalaureate exam, I had no idea of what I was going to do with my life nor did I have any insight about the career pathways I should take. It was common in my community that anyone with good grades on the baccalaureate exams should go into medical field so that is what happened to me. I am not going to label it as “a childhood passion or a childhood dream”, it was nothing of the sort. I had good grades on my baccalaureate exams I had little insight about mycareer choices that I have at that time. I fell into social and peer pressure and chose what anyone in my position would have chosen. That is how I ended up being in medicine.

What was your competence in medicine?

I’d say what helped me in medical school was my passion for science not just medical science but science in general. I always loved physics, math, life science, natural science, I was generally curious kid who used her curiosity to learn medicine.

What challenges did you face during your medical journey, and were there any disappointments during your internship? What is the atmosphere like in Algerian hospitals?

I think the main challenge was the intensity of the studies I had to study every single day, and that kind of impacted my mental health and wellbeing. I was stressed all the time, so my biggest challenge was to learn how to manage my stress with my studies.

“[Laughter]” my whole internship was a disappointment, I am not going to lie. I had some expectations of what practicing medicine would be like, but when I started working as a doctor it was nothing of what I had expected it to be. That is the reason I am currently in a break from practicing as a doctor.

I have one word for the hospital’s atmosphere: toxic.

What do you like most about the medical field and being a doctor?

I would say the challenge; because as a doctor, when you have clinical case or patient you are given a set of symptoms and you would need to figure out what is their diagnosis and how are you going manage their case. So to me that’s challenging and intriguing and fun in a way I love that I love solving the clinical case.

As a doctor who bases her logic and competence on science and nature. What can you say about the myths, traditions, and sacred rituals of Algerian society? Is there a hope that Algerians will base their decisions and logic on science rather than on traditions and myths?

Actually one of the main reasons I started creating content on social media was to debunk these myths to actually educate my community on the importance of science in our day-to-day lives.

And yes! Personally, I do think that Algerian people would one day base their decisions and their day-to-day practices on science rather than traditions and myths. I believe it’s inevitable result because many societies in history has always based their practices on myths and traditions but has evolved today to be science based communities. It is not like Algerians are some unique species that is immune to scientific and technological advances… So I believe with the right community and government education efforts, societies do evolve.

What concerns you most about the healthcare system and medicine in Algeria?

I think one of the most alarming things is the rate of healthcare providers’ burnout, whether doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers in Algeria are overworked and underpaid. The rate of mental, physical health problems is alarming in a way it is making a lot of Algerian healthcare providers wanting to flee the system.

Algerian people still seek medical treatment abroad up to this day; what are your thoughts on that? Don’t we have eligible doctors to treat patients?

I do not think that this phenomenon is restricted only to Algeria. I think it is an underdeveloped countries problem. Because even if you have competent doctor in your country, the healthcare system is inefficient and has no resources to perform adequate medical healthcare. People will automatically seek healthcare from institutions that can provide adequate healthcare.

Some of the topics you discuss in your podcast are triggering for the Algerian social media community. How did you come up with the idea of podcasts, and how do you decide what subject matter to talk about?

Actually, my podcast was a total random idea. I remember it was the beginning of Covid-19 lockdown; I started in November 2019 so we have been out of school and I have been spending a lot time at home, I was losing my mind because I could not get out.

I didn’t have precise methodology of choosing a topic; sometimes it was my personal choice of a topic that I cared about, in others I included my community by asking them through my Instagram what topic do they want me to talk about or what topics do they wanted to talk about. Because I have some episodes that I call community episodes in which my online community can send me their opinions about a certain topic and I would make podcasts episode tackling it. So yeah, it was error trial methodology.

To what extent do you believe Instagram and social media could help in expressing yourself as well as spreading awareness amongst people?

Personally I genuinely believe that social media is a double-edged sword; because it could be used to spread awareness and to educate people and it could also be a way to spread misinformation, myths, and unscientific beliefs. Social media is just a tool that you can use to communicate whatever idea or information you want to communicate; and it is all boils down to how effective your communication strategy is rather than how many information are true and factual.

As for expressing oneself in social media, I have the same opinion concerning the spreading awareness because you can be genuine and express your true self as well as you can portray an image that you want people to perceive of you, so I would take anything on social media with agrain of salt. I would always fact check, I will not believe anything said on social media.

As a member of a society, what do you think of the Algerian society’s norms? Since we live in society according to theological and cultural norms and rules; Can we still claim that we have free will?

I would not care less of the Algerian social norms. Because to me it was never a determining factor of my life choices the only thing I would take into consideration is the Algerian law; I would not do things that are prohibited by law. I do not care if my way of living or mylife choices contradict our cultural norms.

In your opinion, what should be done to spread awareness and educate the people to refrain from the beliefs and myths that contradict health, respect, education, humanity, child abuse, domestic violence, women’s rights, etc.?

I think the most important thing is reforming the governmental educational system, as it is the main option to the majority of Algerians to raise their kids, so really big effort should be done on that level. We cannot also neglect the importance of the civil community in reforming the community.

Because what we learn in school is very important in shaping the person you are, but also your interactions with your peers and the society has a big impact on your believes and on your identity as a person. So we cannot neglect the agents of civil society: like associations, digital content creators (because they influence opinions), traditional or digital media. We should enforce whatever extracurricular agent that could help educating future generations such as university club associations, sport clubs, whatever agent that could help reform our common beliefs.

According to you, what can help women gain their value in the society and community in Algeria, in light of the prevailing patriarchal mentality of the Algerian people?

100% boils down to financial independence. You cannot have value and be your true self if your survival depends on another person. The stepping stone to create in your value is to be able to insure your own survival without depending on anybody else. After that, it is up to every woman to decide what brings value to her life and what values that she wants to bring to society. Some women find empowerment in working in politics, education, sports, motherhood,etc. For me, the basic empowering agent for women is being independent financially.

What is your dream job?

I don’t have the answer yet, the whole purpose of me putting my medical career on a break, was to explore different career pathways and see what actually makes me happy and fulfills me as a person. I’m yet to find it, but I’m on a journey to find my dream job.

What would you advise students who want to choose medicine as their career profession?

Don’t “[laughter]” I’m just kidding! I think the golden advice would be: not to choose medicine unless you do not see yourself being anything but a doctor. If you have, the slightest interest in another passion, go for it. Because medicine is a highly demanding career choice, whether in school or as a job. It would take you an enormous amount of passion and patience to live through it.

Wissal Instagram Profile: https://www.instagram.com/not_wiss/

Wissal Podcasts: https://pod.link/1500402593