Cornell Stars help students develop essential skills

June, 2015

Third-year students were able to practice conducting pediatric examinations as the children of faculty and staff visited the college for the annual Cornell Stars event.

Twenty-five youngsters aged between four months and seven years were brought to the college by their parents to give the students the chance to carry out clinical examinations as part of their Introductory Clerkship course, with senior faculty members on hand to offer guidance and advice.

The aim of the half-day session, which took place in the Clinical Skills Center of WCMC-Q on 11 June, was not only to help the students become technically proficient at performing examinations, but also to let them develop the interpersonal skills needed to keep young patients calm and happy during a check-up.

Each of the 36 students had the chance to observe senior pediatricians from WCMC-Q, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Sidra Medical and Research Center carry out an examination, before having a go themselves. The students carried out basic health checks such as listening to the child’s heart and breathing, checking the ears and throat, and testing general motor function.

Dr. Amal Khidir, assistant professor of pediatrics, coordinated the event in partnership with WCMC-Q’s Office of Curriculum Support and the Clinical Skills Center.

She said: “Cornell Stars gives our students a great opportunity to learn the interpersonal skills that are such important attributes for a physician. Learning these skills by interacting with children is very useful because you have to be able to adjust your approach depending upon the child’s developmental stage, their mood and their personality, which is quite demanding.”

The Introductory Clerkship course, directed by Dr. Mai Mahmoud, assistant professor of medicine, is an important milestone in the life of medical students at WCMC-Q as it marks the transition point between learning the basic sciences and putting that knowledge into practice in clinical rotations at HMC. While the third-year students had already worked with adult patients, for most of them this was their first experience of examining children.

The students were guided by WCMC-Q’s Dr. Stella Major, associate professor of clinical medicine; Dr. Marcelina Mian, professor of pediatrics and associate dean for medical education; and Dr. Khidir, as well as HMC academic pediatric fellows Dr. Sohair Elsiddig and Dr. Khaled Siddiq and HMC attending physicians Dr. Madeeha Kamal, Dr. Magda Wagdy and Dr. Elkhansa Elgaali. From Sidra, Dr. Mahmud Mustafa, Dr. Asya Al-Kharusi, and Dr. Sharda Uddasi provided guidance to the students.

Student Ayesha Khalid said: “I found the event really useful as a learning experience, especially as I am interested in specializing in pediatrics. I really wanted to know if I would feel comfortable interacting with the children and how they would respond to me. It was challenging but by the end I was beginning to understand how to find the right balance between keeping the child happy by interacting with them but also staying focused on performing a thorough examination.”

Dr. Raphael Courjaret, research associate in physiology and biophysics at WCMC-Q, and his wife Estelle brought their 11-month-old daughter, Marie, to the event.

Dr. Courjaret said: “We were very happy to bring Marie to help the students because it is very important for them to have the experience of examining a real child. The event is a really good way for the students to learn how to behave around children, how to keep them relaxed and what to do if the child starts to cry or something like this. These are really important skills for the students to learn.”

Each of the young stars was presented with a certificate of appreciation and a small gift to thank them for helping with the event.

Dr. Khidir added: “All of the faculty and students are very thankful to the young stars and their parents for joining us. They have made a great contribution to the students’ education.

“We are also very grateful to our colleagues at HMC and Sidra for helping us to deliver this extremely effective learning experience.”