Faculty Spotlight: Dr. McMahon

In third grade, Dr. Janice McMahon attended a circus show only to discover she could see none of it. Luckily for her, her uncle was engaged to an ICO student. One eye exam later she had the diagnosis: a –350 myope.

Before then “I never knew there were leaves on trees,” says Dr. McMahon, “I didn’t know there were wires between telephone poles.” It was only after she got her first pair of glasses that she realized just how many more details the world had. “Since then, I knew I wanted to be an optometrist.” Now she has been a faculty member at ICO for 25+ years, and she was recently named the IOA’s Optometrist of the Year. We sat down to learn a bit more about the IOA, and Dr. McMahon’s career at ICO.

Why has it been important for you to be involved in both the IOA and the AOA? How has legislation improved the field of optometry?

I’ve been on the Illinois State Board of Optometry for almost 13 years. It’s been a really important part of my optometric career. Ultimately, I am so involved because when we expand our scope, we help more patients.

Say you're someone in rural Louisiana: your partner drives a whole hour and a half, all for the chance that a doctor might help you see more clearly. But when you arrive, the doctor tells you she cannot treat you because it is not in her scope of practice. The doctor can’t provide valuable care, and you and your partner lose three hours with no resolution.

Without a strong representative body, optometrists risk being trained at a higher level than they're ever legally allowed to practice. That gap undermines their education, their careers, and ultimately, patient care. We need advocates who will not only defend our current scope of practice but fight to expand it. We need people who are looking at the bigger picture and fighting to ensure that the largest number of patients get the most comprehensive care possible. This is what the AOA and the IOA are doing, and I find it admirable. It’s about meeting patients where they are, whether that’s here in Chicago or in the rural South. 

You were just recently chosen as Optometrist of the Year by the IOA. Why do you believe they chose you as optometrist of the year?

This honor came as quite a surprise to me. I’m someone who much prefers to be behind the scenes, and I honestly didn’t think I was on anyone’s radar. I’m guessing the reason is two-fold, I think part of it is the length of my tenure in the IOA and it’s partly how I’ve been able to connect the academic and legislative sides of this profession. While I’m a faculty member, I’ve also served on several national and state committees. This isn’t all that common, but it's been an important part of my career. As academicians, we teach optometry to its fullest scope, but state regulations often limit what our graduates can actually practice. Both the IOA and the AOA have given me a good perspective of what optometry is like outside of academic circles. Their continued work really is vital to the growth of this profession. This growth is going to be a fight and it's going to be a fight for a couple generations down the road, and I think it’s important to support them as best I can.

When I think back to what we were able to practice when I first went to optometry school — I mean, we weren’t even allowed to dilate eyes — it’s amazing to see how much we have grown as a profession. Since then, we've had a dozen or more legislations come through, each of which has made our field richer. 

You work full time in the clinic, why? What about the patients has made you want to stay? 

I loved the courses I taught at ICO, but after 15 years of teaching the same course, I realized I didn't want to be in front of a group anymore. I much preferred being in the background, so I naturally gravitated towards clinical care and one-on-ones with students. The courses were passed on to faculty members who wanted to grow them. I provided a basis, and they energetically and very capably expanded on that.

That freed up my time to do more of what I love — interacting with our patients and our students. It’s important for me to show students that every patient we see is an individual, and we must treat them as the person in our chair, not as a statistic or as a disease, but as someone who has to go home and live with whatever we tell them. I want patients to understand their condition, and so I spend a lot of time and energy making sure I'm communicating in a way that resonates with them. After all, our treatment only goes as far as the care they are willing to accept. In the end, their wellbeing lies in their hands.

How have you seen ICO and optometry grow since you arrived at ICO?  

The students have changed quite a bit. It used to be you would graduate, and your career path would be pretty straightforward. Students today are willing to take the time to explore their options, partly because there are now so many more opportunities available.

Optometry has embraced the medical side of our profession without forgetting that we are also refractive contact lens providers. Optometry really is both, and we can’t be so focused on the medical side that we forget that we provide an incredible service — that of improving people’s vision. For a while, we were hyper focused on the medical side, now we are better balanced. At the end of the day, optometrists care deeply about providing the best care possible, and we do that when we embrace the full scope of what our profession offers. 

What's one thing you want incoming students to know about the field of optometry?

Optometry is an incredibly dynamic field, and it will change and expand over the course of your career. What you do at the beginning may not be what you’re doing 10 or 20 years from now or as you near retirement. Learn a little bit about everything and be flexible. If you want to practice all modes of optometry, you can. If you want to hyper focus on a specific specialty area, that’s also fine. As you grow, your profession will grow with you.

Optometry is very rewarding. It's a career that I have never regretted for a minute. It’s the possibilities that keep me moving forward because it's not a stagnant profession at all.

As you go through these four years, get as much out of this experience as possible, keep an open mind, and have a broad base because the profession is going to continue moving forward and you will need to evolve with it.

What's one piece of advice for students who are currently pursuing their degree in optometry?

At ICO, you’ll work with many attendings. You’ll like some approaches more than others, but every single one of them has something to teach you. Take the best of what you see and use it to shape yourself into the kind of doctor you want to become. In the end, your practice will ultimately be a reflection of all the people who helped you grow.

Even today, I see how a colleague explains a certain illness to a patient, and I think, “Oh, I’ve never thought of it in that way before.” That ongoing learning has made me a better doctor and communicator.

I also want to encourage students to look beyond optometry. Many optometrists derive a lot of meaning from the organizations they’re involved in. Optometry will be a big part of your life, but don’t let it be your whole life. Look for what brings you joy outside of work, too. It’s all part of building a life that feels full and meaningful.