Taneisha McGhie: A ‘natural attraction’ to media, medicine

WHEN Taneisha McGhie was five years old, her mother gave her a doctor’s kit containing a toy stethoscope as a gift. The child’s imagination kindled and she pretended to be the stethoscope-equipped doctor attending to imaginary persons afflicted with different ailments.

It was somewhere around this early period the 31-year-old medical doctor and co-host of TVJ ‘s Smile Jamaica recalls, that her desire to be a doctor was born.

“I think that medicine chose me, even though I think I have a higher aptitude for the arts,” she tells all woman, her face relaxing into smile. “I was always doctoring the dolls and dogs, I just wanted to practise medicine … because I like the feeling of helping people.”

Now her childhood role play has evolved into an unfaltering enthusiasm for the world of medicine.

We’re at her office at the Comprehensive Health Clinic on Slipe Pen Road, and it’s not long before all woman is convinced that the sociable doctor uses her profession as a platform to spur hope in the lives of patients.

Since commencing her practice in 2003, Mcghie has deliberately chosen inner-city health clinics, where she believes she can have a greater impact on the physical and emotional well-being of her patients. Last year, she assumed a two-fold role at the clinic, which brought her closer to some of the society’s most vulnerable she is passionate about reaching. She began working with HIV-positive persons, administering treatment for the disease and overseeing the HIV vaccine trial in Jamaica.

“I strategically chose to work in the public sector. I wanted to really understand the health needs of the average Jamaican,” she says. “The first time I see them (patients), sometimes they are depressed, but the next time when I get feedback, it’s not about the medicine, it’s about the fact that I listen to them,” she relates while a warm glow of satisfaction settles over her face.

Her interest in Smile Jamaica was a natural attraction, she says, as she enjoys meeting people and hearing their stories. She started the job in 2000, but intends to relinquish it sometime this year. This move is prompted largely by her decision to return to medical school to specialise as an internist, which she hopes to begin next year.

“Right now, because of my work with HIV/AIDS, I want to go into infectious diseases because I really enjoy my work in that area, and I can see my life’s work in this area,” she emphasises. Dispensing medical care does not monopolise Mcghie’s time. Volunteer work, she shares, is one avenue she exploits to empower persons to make wise choices. When she was crowned Miss Jamaica Festival Queen in 2000, a ripe opportunity appeared for her to do this.

She took on two children’s homes – Dare to Care and Best Care Lodge – as part of her festival queen projects, soliciting donations from corporate companies to assist children infected with AIDS in these facilities. This effort is still ongoing though her primary volunteer work is with the Big Sister Group, which she convened in 2006.

It involves mentoring girls between nine and 20 years in areas such as grammar, speech, and conducting activities to raise self-esteem. She was also a mentor for Youth Opportunities Unlimited and since last year signed on as a mentor at her alma mater, Wolmer’s Girls’ School. Occasionally she gives motivational talks to schools and uses this forum, she adds, to heighten the students’ sensitisation about HIV.

“I subscribe to the humanistic theory that people are innately good and they just need the opportunity to become what they want to be,” she asserts. “My main message is always that life is about choices and you have to make a choice to realise your potential. People need positive reinforcements. It’s a lack of it why women bleach their skin and demean themselves.”

In high school, she grasped an important lesson after completing her A’Levels. Her grades in science fell below her expectations, not because of inaptitude, but a lack of consistent focus.

“I went to sixth form with the CXC mentality and thought I could get by, but I learnt that you have to be really focused,” she remembers. Her academic achievements never flickered thereafter, as her performance at UWI indicates.

She attained an upper second-class honours degree in Biology and Zoology in 1997, a springboard to starting her medical degree in 1998.

An unmistakable certitude had crept in Mcghie’s vision by the time she completed her first year in 1999 as she was the recipient of an academic bursary for achieving a distinction in Pharmacology and honours in Biochemistry and Community Health. She was also awarded the runner-up prize by The Medical Protection Society and Dean’s Essay Competition in 2001 for her entry, Legal and Ethical Issues related to the Control of HIV.

This was topped off in 2002 by the winning prize for her entry Designer Babies: the Moral and Ethical Issues, which was published in the West Indian Medical Journal in June 2003.

McGhie acknowledges that her inspiration to motivate and tap into the potential of people is derived mainly from her mom, attorney Audrey Allen, who ensured that the four children in the home received a well-rounded education. Allen, McGhie recounts, was a stickler for academic discipline, and steadfastly poured much energy into moulding her children as well as many others less fortunate. It is these qualities, McGhie explains, that act as a template for her life.

“She has helped many others with their education all the way up to university. She will sacrifice everything to take care of our needs. She is very hard-working. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without observing her and the values she has imparted,” she expresses. Added positive reinforcements came from her grandmother, who was acting vice-principal at Ensom City All-Age and a firm disciplinarian and promoter of Christian values, she says.

And with so much of Mcghie’s time spent serving others, the question of starting a family was bound to come up.

Most certainly, she informs all woman, but it’s an area she’s approaching with care. “I’m just taking it one day at a time because I really intend to get married only once. So I really want to make the right decision in terms of a life partner,” she reveals. She also wants the marital union to produce children. “I wanted four, but like how it’s too late now, I might just have two,” she chuckles.