Zoya Sheikh

Paediatrics Resident at Mehrangan Institute of Child Health | Clear explanations, careful listening, kinder care

I’m a paediatrics resident in Hyderabad, learning daily that a good explanation needs to make sense to both a worried parent and a very suspicious four-year-old. My interests include child development, preventive care, and making discharge instructions useful after a family gets home. I take my work seriously, though I reserve the right to negotiate with toddlers over the stethoscope. Outside the hospital, I bake unnecessarily complicated cakes, read and write Urdu poetry, and play badminton whenever the rota allows.

Training across paediatric wards, outpatient clinics, neonatal care, and emergency rotations as part of an MD programme. Assess children under consultant supervision, support family counselling, and prepare discharge guidance. Present cases at departmental teaching sessions, with a particular interest in developmental assessment and preventive care.

Supported inpatient and outpatient paediatric care under senior clinicians. Assisted with initial assessments, ward reviews, clinical documentation, and caregiver education. Learned to explain treatment plans without assuming that a quiet parent has no questions.

Paediatric clinical assessment, Family counselling, Developmental screening, Neonatal care, Clinical documentation, Discharge planning, Patient education, Case presentation, Multidisciplinary teamwork

English, Urdu, Hindi, Telugu — conversational

A small thing I’m trying to do more consistently during discharge counselling: ask, “How will you give this medicine at home?” rather than “Have you understood?” The second question often gets a polite yes. The first gives us a chance to catch confusion about the dose, the measuring device, or the timing. Explaining something once is not the same as explaining it well. Still learning this, especially on busy days.

Two years into residency this month. I can present a case more clearly, recognise when I need help sooner, and occasionally finish my tea while it is still recognisably tea. The biggest change, though, is being less embarrassed to say “I don’t know yet.” Grateful to seniors who make questions welcome and colleagues who notice when someone needs ten minutes and a proper meal. Neither should be considered a luxury.

Revising developmental milestones has reminded me how easily a conversation can become a checklist. The checklist matters. So does asking what a child enjoys, what the family has noticed, and what is actually worrying them. I’m trying to leave room for those answers before moving to the next question. No dramatic conclusion here; just a note to myself before another outpatient week.

Presented at our departmental journal club this week and discovered that cutting slides is considerably harder than adding them. My senior’s advice was simple: if the audience remembers three things, which three should they be? A useful question for presentations, and probably for patient education too. The final version had fewer tables, larger text, and one less opportunity for me to say “as you can see” about something nobody could see.