TEACHING PROGRAMMES

The Department is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching:

UNDERGRADUATE

• PRECLINICAL PROGRAMME

The Department is committed to the process of delivering to undergraduate students the main concepts and principles of child health that will help them to undertake their internship duties safely and also decide on their future postgraduate studies.

The Department has structured teaching activities for students lead by Education Committee of the Department. The students have different components of assessment during the rotations and at the end of the rotation, organized by the clinical coordinators and monitored by the Department’s Examination Committee.

Members of the Department are also involved in the preclinical courses in the COMHS: The Clinical Communication and Clinical Skills courses.

• CLINICAL PROGRAMME

Currently all the Pre-clerkship, Junior Clerkship and Senior Clerkship programs are running smoothly. Our Pre-Internship programme offers hands-on experience of the practice of paediatrics to medical students and has been running successfully. The Department also participates in Integrated Modules II and III which takes around 50 students every spring and fall semesters.

POSTGRADUATE TEACHING

The morning meetings provide an hour of clinical teaching every day in the form of paediatric scientific clinical meetings, case presentations, mortality and morbidity, grand rounds, histopathology meetings and clinical radiological meetings. In addition to this, there are weekly presentations for interns, and monthly journal clubs.

The Department has around 10-20 pediatric interns per group rotating on quarterly basis, coordinated by Dr. Hilal Al Mandhari.  At any time of the year, the Department is having 5–10 OMSB pediatric residents for training. Each year, three members of staff are invited to give presentations to Family Medicine & Public Health residents on common childhood diseases. One member of the taff is invited yearly to deliver a clinical presentation to the Emergency Department residents.

Senior department members contribute to the Post-graduate research programs outside the Department and act as Supervisors and Judges for their research day.

The Department conducts successful yearly examination leading to Membership of the Royal College of Paediatric & Child Health (MRCPCH). 

TRAINING COURSES AND CME ACTIVITIES

The Department actively contributes to the following training courses: Neonatal Advance Resuscitation Course (three times a year), Paediatric Advance Life Support (PALS) (five times a year), also with excellent contribution towards other courses offered by SQUH such as Basic Life Support (BLS) and Pain Management and the MRCPCH Preparatory Course (once a year).

Procedures Offered by Child Health Department

Neurology            -  EEG, EMG, Nerve Conduction Velocity, BAER, SSEP, VEP, 24 hours’ video EEG

Gastroenterology  -  Endoscopy, Colonoscopy

Pulmonology        -  Bronchoscopy, Sleep Studies

Immunology        -  Skin Test

Nephrology         -  Peritoneal dialysis, continuous venovenous hemofiltration

Haematology        -  Exchange transfusions, plasmapheresis, Port-A-Cath access, BMA, BM biopsy, intra-thecal chemotherapy

Dermatology        -  Skin biopsy

PICU                   -  Central line insertion

Services to Emergency Department

 A total of 13053 pediatric patients were seen and consulted by the Paediatric On-Call Team for the whole year.

Paediatric Out-Patient Service

Table 1: The Paediatric Clinic is open on all working days of the week with the following schedules of OPD clinics.

Participation in Community Service:

We take great pride in continuing to serve the community, raising funds to serve children with all kinds of special needs in various ways. School Health Education programme has been an innovative initiative from the Department, addressing issues of healthy life style, alcohol and drug abuse, obesity/ healthy diet for children, studying in various schools. We provide consultancies in Gulf area, Bahrain, Kuwait, India and local Hospitals in Oman for Hematology cases. We offer parents counseling and education for Home Ventilation.

  Child Health Department is also active in participating in Media awareness through Radio   and TV for Paediatric Hematology/Oncology Diseases; Autism; Asthma and Immunological Diseases. Three Members of the Department Are Associate Editors of SQUMJ and four Members, of Oman Medical Journal; both Journals are PubMed and Scopus indexed. The Department helps in awareness campaigns of Genetic Blood Disorders and Juvenile Diabetes. We extend our free service to sick children in Orphanages.

Organizing Conferences:

      Organized Epilepsy Awareness Day March 2018.

Participation in National and Regional Committees:

The Department members continuously contributed to various external and internal committees:

Dr. Hussein Al Kindy is the Chairman of the Program Evaluation Committee and a member of the Simulation and Examination subcommittees of the Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB).  He serves as council member of the Asian Paediatric Pulmonology Society (APPS) and the first Arab person in this society.  He is also a board member of the Asian Society of Sleep Medicine, and also a member of Middle East Cystic Fibrosis Association (MECFA).  Prof. Yasser Wali serves as Program Director of Pediatrics in OMSB.  Dr. Salem Al Tamemi, is a member of the Immunization Committee, Ministry of Health. Dr. Amna Al Futaisi, is a current member of the Medical Promotion Committee, Ministry of Diwan and Chairperson of Examination Committee in OMSB.  Some members of our department serve as Technical Experts to the Higher Medical Committee (HMC) for cases involving various pediatric specialities such as Hematology and Oncology, Nephrology, Neonatology, Neurology.  The Dean of the College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Assistant Professor Dr. Muna Al Saadoon, is a member of the State Council and member of National Committee of Bioethics. She was also appointed as a board member of the Arab Association to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect.

Department of Child Health

College of Medicine & Health Sciences

Sultan Qaboos University

PO Box: 35, Al Khoudh, PC 123 Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Phone:  (+968) 24143406 (College Coordinator)

E-mail:  chdept@squ.edu.om.