Christine McGuire: At the Heart of the Maverick Measurement Maven

Abstract

In this article, part of the Exemplar series in Advances in Health Sciences Education, we profile the career of Christine McGuire, and capture her perspectives on the status of medical education practice and research. Her career was prototypical of other exemplars in the series--a pathway characterized by serendipity. As an exemplar, her contributions of leadership, scholarship, and innovations have changed the face of medical education. We describe our methods of data collection--literature reviews and in-depth interviews. We provide a portrayal of her career and accomplishments. Finally, we characterize her perspectives on medical eduction, including her views of significant innovations, contributions of professional educators, lessons learned, and needed future efforts.

On whose shoulders we stand: lessons from Exemplar medical educators

“…Data can be a way of persuading faculty to follow the most effective practices in spite of the political forces that might argue otherwise'' (Simpson and Bland 2002). Christine McGuire stresses that the very ''survival of our offices depends on doing rigorous research…I see us not like basic science departments, but rather as analogous to clinical departments with interrelated Lessons from Exemplars 565 service, educational, and research functions-where our research priorities are derived from our service responsibilities, which, in turn, furnish the laboratory for our research'' (Harris and Simpson 2005). Franks Stritter makes the research mission a personal one: ''I tried to make every job I took on, every assignment, every task, an academic story of some kind.…”

“…Steve Abrahamson stressed the ''importance of extramural funding in establishing the local credibility of the professional educator with other medical school faculty, deans, and department chairs'' (Simpson and Bland 2002) In the words of Christine McGuire, extramural funding ''reduces the competition with other faculty and departments…so the professional educator is not competing with other departments when they are short of dollars'' (Harris and Simpson 2005). Another benefit of extramural funding is innovation as Frank Stritter reminds us; ''most innovations have gotten started with some kind of grant support'' (Bland and Irby 2005).…”

“…(Wilkerson and Anderson 2004); Christine McGuire, M.A. (Harris and Simpson 2005); and Frank Stritter, Ph.D. (Bland and Irby 2005). Current professional educators captured their career stories through in-depth interviews using a standardized interview protocol.…”

“…Steve Abrahamson said: ''You can't go into a medical school and work alone; you are going to be a partner…work with the faculty to help them achieve what they want to achieve'' (Simpson and Bland 2002). Christine McGuire echoed this sentiment when she described the role of the educationist, to make the ''faculty more conscious about instructional techniques through collegial exchanges of ideas, brainstorming, bringing other perspectives and serving as darned good resources for collaboration'' (Harris and Simpson 2005). Dr. Abrahamson went on to say ''One must identify those faculty who will me the most productive partners and which are better worked around than with…I used to divide the faculty into 3 groups: 'the Friendlies' we loved and worked with closely; 'the Neutrals' we tried to influence with data and ideas; and 'the Hostiles' we avoided and prayed we were never afflicted with a disease in their specialty'' (Simpson and Bland 2002).…”

“…Unless they can justify their 'value added' to medical school leaders, they may be in jeopardy'' (Anderson and Harris 2003). Christine McGuire echoes the warning by saying ''it is important to be doing things that are useful to one's home medical school…our relevance, perhaps our continued existence, depends on our helping our host institutions meet the challenges they face'' (Harris and Simpson 2005).…”