Cornell Stars help trainee doctors learn new skills

Medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) participated in the Cornell Stars programme as part of WCM-Q’s annual Introductory Clerkship Course, where faculty and staff members bring in their own children so that the students can learn the best techniques for examining youngsters while also ensuring they remain relaxed and happy.
Using the mock surgeries at WCM-Q’s state-of-the-art Clinical Skills Centre, the students, who are all heading into the third year of the medical curriculum, perform a basic physical examination of the children under the guidance of WCM-Q faculty and doctors from Hamad Medical Corp, Al Wakra and Sidra hospitals.
A total of 45 medical students took part in the Cornell Stars event and it was the first time they had been presented with children as ‘patients’. Dr Amal Khidir, associate professor of paediatrics and organiser of the Cornell Stars programme, said the event allowed young children to be educators to teach the medical students at WCM-Q.
“We are trying to role model what a paediatrician does, the best ways of engaging a child and their family, and how to persuade the child to allow themselves to be examined.
We show the students how to perform a basic physical examination and the creative ways that paediatricians use to soothe the child, keep them calm and get them to comply; for example, we might let them listen to their heartbeat with the stethoscope.”
She said the nature of the examination is opportunistic and that with an adult, physicians would be methodical and go from head to toe, but with children “they have to take opportunities when they present themselves”.
Usually a doctor will start at the heart and lungs of young child and go on to the abdomen, before examining the ears and finally the nose and throat so as to minimise any distress.
Dr Mai Mahmoud, assistant professor of medicine and director of the Introductory Clerkship Course, added: “The Cornell Stars programme is incredibly important to the development and education of our students as fully-rounded doctors.”
Mahmoud also thanked Dr Najla Sharahil of Hamad Hospital, Dr Wail Ali Seleem and Dr Abdussalam Shah of Al Wakra Hospital, Dr Sharda Udassi and Dr Amin Salem from Sidra Medical and Research Center, and Dr Mohamud Verjee of WCM-Q for sharing their time and experience.