WCM-Q trainee doctors learn to handle youngsters at Cornell Stars program
A WCM-Q student examines a child during the Cornell Stars event.
Medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) had the chance to enhance their key physicianship skills of interaction, communication, and performing basic clinical examinations for children through the Cornell Stars program.
The annual event gave students who are entering the third year of the medical curriculum in Fall 2025 an opportunity to interact with babies, toddlers and children aged between one month and six years.
The annual event, held during clinical orientation week, prepares students for their full-time clinical experience in hospitals, where they will complete clinical blocks and rotations in various specialties. Each year, healthy children of WCM-Q faculty and staff are invited to participate, allowing students to develop skills in interacting with and examining young children in a simulated clinical environment.
Supervised by pediatricians and family physicians from WCM-Q, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), and Sidra Medicine, the students practiced handling children at WCM-Q’s state-of-the-art Clinical Skills & Simulation Lab, which features several mock clinics. The physicians demonstrated how to engage with children, communicate effectively with parents, and how to make the children to get interested in physical examinations.
A total of 22 children participated in the event, along with 40 WCM-Q students and 12 physicians. Attending pediatric consultants included Dr. Khaled Siddiq, Dr. Suzan Nassar, Dr. Khalid Zahraldin, Dr. Loai Elsaadany, and Dr. Anas AbdulKayoum. Pediatric fellows were Dr. Hadeel Alzoubi, Dr. Khadija Khudabakhsh, Dr. Saleha Abbasi, and Dr. Salha Abdelkhair, and pediatric resident Dr. Bassant Okab. WCM-Q faculty members included Dr. Stella Major, professor of family medicine teaching in medicine, and Dr. Reshma Bholah, assistant professor of pediatrics.
Dr. Amal Khidir, associate professor of pediatrics at WCM-Q and organizer of the Cornell Stars program, said: “This program is designed to familiarize students, who are beginning their full-time clinical experience in hospitals, with handling children at an early stage. We aim to simulate a clinical setting by replicating real-life encounters of a child accompanied by a parent, a nanny, or both parents. Our goal is to demonstrate how to engage with children effectively using various tools and techniques and to equip students with practical skills. Through this initiative, students demistify their worry or fear of interacting with children and prepare them to working with children during their hospital rotations and may even be inspired to pursue pediatrics.”
Student Reem Al Janahi said: “This experience has given me confidence as I enter the clinical setting. This was my first time interacting with children in such an environment, and I’m grateful to the parents who brought their children to help us learn and support our journey to becoming physicians.”
Another student, Mohammed Al-Bishri, said: “This experience will be invaluable as we transition into our clinical years and begin our pediatric rotations. We learned how conducting physical examinations on children differs from adults and how to approach children, make them feel comfortable and safe, and perform the examination effectively.”
Sara Omar, another student, added: “Observing pediatricians perform medical examinations on young children helped me understand the subtleties of pediatric examinations. This experience not only refined my ability to engage with young patients but also emphasized the importance of flexibility and patience as a practitioner.”
Dr. Aisha Madani Al-Malki, a WCM-Q employee who brought her six-year-old daughter to the event, said: “I feel proud to support the students in their clinical practice as they learn to become physicians. When I see them in the future after they have become doctors, I will be happy knowing that I contributed to their learning journey.”