Mayra Ayala Alemán (Bolivia)

What is your role at your work?

I care for patients in the Nephrology service, including those who are hospitalized, outpatients and undergoing hemodialysis.

How did you get interested in your career path?

Since my school age, I have felt the need to help people’s health, and as a doctor I have always liked to study the functioning of the urinary tract and how it affects almost our entire body.

What are you most proud of in your career or otherwise?

I feel that my greatest achievement is listening to patients and trying to solve their health problem in the most comprehensive way possible and knowing that they feel content.

What important career challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?

Moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina in search of my specialty, which meant leaving my family behind. Later, having completed my specialty, I returned to Bolivia which meant leaving behind my work environment in Argentine and starting from scratch again in a city where, despite being from where I come from, I was not known by anyone. I  faced that challenge by trying to look forward, thinking that all the changes I make in my life are about  looking for something better, and that at the beginning everything can be difficult but not impossible.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Try not to waste time, which goes by in a second, and meet all your goals thinking about your future, and let go of everything that doesn’t let you move towards what you want from the heart.

Have you had any significant career mentors? If yes, please provide further details.

Yes, the head of the Nephrology and Renal Transplant service at the Argerich Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A great boss from whom I learned about trying to cure patients in a holistic way: seeing their health problem, getting to the bottom of it to see the cause and solve it in the best possible way, In addition, knowing their family and social environment, and always being alert to everything. As a servant leader, I learned from him that you cannot be a leader alone, but that you must share responsibilities with fellow specialists in each area, and thus strengthen a unit trying to be the best.

How can we support the next generation of women scientists?

Remind them above all that everything they want and wherever they want to go can be done with determination