M. Mebtoul et al., OPINIONS OF ALGERIAN PHYSICIANS CONCERNING MEDICAL-CARE - A FRAGILE OCCUPATIONAL IDENTITY, Sciences sociales et sante, 16(2), 1998, pp. 5-25
This paper is aimed at understanding, restitute and analyse the differ
ent discourses of Algerian physicians on care activities of three sani
tary institutions (hospital paediatric wards, ''peripheral'' structure
s and private offices). The paper is focusing on meanings attributed b
y health practitioners, whose status can be different (specialised and
general practitioners), to the various strains within care activities
, but concerning also the various social relationships elaborated toge
ther with consumers and coworkers. We are attempting to show how much
care activities are baffled and trapped, how deviated they are in cont
act with social reality. All the doctors' frame or reference concernin
g illlness, medicine, focusing on the technical and scientific dimensi
on, is questioned as it is fully disconnected from the daily medical p
ractice characterized by its feature of ''daily do it yourself'' and a
s it reveals a deeply impaired professional identity of the physicians
.