Ana Goyenechea

Hello Ana. Thank you so much for joining this proyect. I would like to ask you some questions about yourself. Where are you from? And where do you live right now?

Hi Sofía. I am from San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain. After 20 years away (first Pamplona and Madrid after) I now live in San Sebastian.

What is your current job? And what did you study?

I studied Medicine and now I am a family doctor at the San Sebastian health center.

What has been your professional career?

I studied in Pamplona. Then I moved to Madrid to specialize in family medicine and continued working there for 10 years. In Madrid I worked in the infectious diseases unit of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation. Later I came to San Sebastián to work in the health center. I am currently the Director of the center.

Have you always wanted to be a doctor? Do you think it is a vocational profession?

I always wanted to be a doctor, since I was a kid. In my case it is a clearly vocation.

In your work you need to update yourself continuously, right? So at the same time your work is a continuous study. How do you organize?

Indeed, we have to keep studying because everything changes and if you do not update youself you do not do a correct job. Every day I read something scientific, even if it is very little when I do not have time. The important thing is to create that routine of reading “what you can” but EVERY DAY. I also attend many refresher courses either offered by the company or outside of it. We also have a program to update the Spanish family society with a semester exam. In addition, I have in my practice both students and residents whom I trained, which requires me to be up to date.

Have you achieved your goals? Do you still have new goals?

I have achieved many of my goals, but I have more to achieve. Let is say that as I achieve goals I look for new ones. This keep me very motivated. I guess someday I will say “that is it, I will stay here”, but for now that day I see it far away. In addition, my profession allows me to seek new challenges.

I can see that you like to take care of yourself, what do you do to have a perfect skin?

Clean my face well morning and night, exfoliate twice a week. I use creams suitable for my skin prescribed by my dermatologist, and most importantly: sunscreen EVERY day. And in summer also wide-brimmed hat and umbrella. As my fellow dermatologists say, “the sun does not burn, the sun hits”. The sun is most responsible for skin aging.

What other things do you do to take care of yourself? Sports, Diet…?

I try to respect the hours of sleep, drink a lot of water, do moderate sports and avoid SUGAR.

Do you think it is important to feel good and beautiful to be sure of yourself and happy?

I think that is very important. A good presence helps a lot in life.

If you had not chosen to be a doctor what would you have liked to be?

Ballerina or lawyer. But I was always clear since I was little that I wanted to be a doctor.