Mekela Whyte-Nesfield, M.D is part of the Critical Care Medicine physician team at Children’s National Hospital.

Dr. Whyte-Nesfield joined Children’s National from Penn State Health Children’s Hospital where she completed her fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care. There she started a multi-site prospective study to evaluate the prevalence of parental Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it relates to patients of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Currently she continues to head this study and hopes to continue with PTSD and resilience research.  Her ultimate goal is to determine the role of parent and child traumatic stress management in improving long term outcomes of children in the PICU.

She also has formal training in simulation education and aims to incorporate her love for teaching with improving physician awareness and management of parent and patient traumatic stress in the PICU.