Gregory L. Hestla, MD
Gregory L. Hestla, MD
Assistant Professor
Psychiatry Clerkship Director
Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
McGovern Medical School
UTHealth Houston
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 713-486-2500
Biography:
Gregory L. Hestla, MD, attending physician at UTHealth Harris County Psychiatric Center, is the director of the Psychiatry Clerkship and an Assistant Professor in the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Dr. Hestla earned his medical degree from UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School and completed residency training at the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences where he also served as Chief Resident for Medical Student Education. He has continued to develop his interest and expertise in medical student education via completion of the Health Educator Fellowship Program offered at McGovern Medical School, service on the McGovern Medical School Curriculum Committee, serving as a Medical Coaching Experience instructor, with lecture responsibilities in the MS2 Nervous System & Behavior Module, and through clinical teaching roles with MS4 Advanced Patient Care students and MS3 Psychiatry Clerkship students. He is an active member of the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP). His educational interests are in Team Based Learning, video modalities for asynchronous learning, and practical instruction about psychiatric interviewing.
Dr. Hestla has a clinical interest in the inpatient treatment of severe mental illnesses including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder.
Educational Teaching Philosophy:
Students learn best when they are in an environment that contains both psychological safety and clearly stated expectations for improvement. How an instructor frames evaluation and improvement for their student allows a feeling of safety to flourish. The expectation the student should meet is always improvement, and mistakes should be treated as an earnest effort by the student to be analyzed and modified to be find ways to be more efficient, effective, or accurate. Advancement at the pace and speed the student is capable of is the goal, and when someone feels safe to make mistakes, to try things and have them be less successful, that is when they can also make the greatest advancements. This allows for the start of mastery to begin.
Being an educator also requires instilling in the students an expectation of maintaining improvement and lifelong learning, and this is especially important in medical education, since mistakes can have disastrous consequences. The time spent in medical education is extensive, so improvements can be gradual, and in fact they often are, but gains made must be maintained. Helping the student appreciate how far they have come, and what their next goal is in their educational journey is a critical role for an educator.
My goal is always to make the “why” clearly expressed to the student, so their own ambition and drive to succeed as a physician can be harnessed to the task at hand, since they understand why the topic is being taught. Explaining how a topic is related to patient care, the clinical relevance, and the practical need for that knowledge is the best way to engage students. To that end I seek out opportunities to make lessons more active, engaging, and firmly connected to clinical aspects of care.
Area of Expertise:
Adult General Psychiatry
Schizophrenia
Bipolar Disorder
Depression
Current Educational Activities:
Psychiatry Clerkship Director 2021-present
Medical Coaching Experience facilitator for Psychiatry Clerkship 2019-present
Psychiatry Clerkship TBL Presenter 2021-present
Clinical Supervisor for MS3 Psychiatry Clerkship students 2019-present
Clinical Supervisor for MS4 Advanced Patient Care in Adult Inpatient Psychiatry students 2021-present
Clinical Supervisor for PGY-1 and PGY-2 Psychiatry trainees 2020-present
Lecturer for MS2 Nervous System and Behavior Module 2022-present
Interview Skills Video Workshop for MS4 students 2022-present
Honors and Awards:
Kenneth Krajewski Award for Excellence in Medical Student Education 2017
Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award 2021-2024
Champions of Clinical Learning Environment 2021 and 2022
Academy of Master Educators 2024
Publications:
Abdel Gawad, N., Hestla, G., Findley, J.C., Medical Students Actively Seek Gun Violence Education. J. Acad Psychiatry. 42(6): 873-2, 2018.
Marshall, A., Hestla, G., et al. Characteristics of Suicide in Fiji: An Updated Review of the Literature. Fiji Journal of Public Health. Vol 5, Issue 1, pg. 15. 2016.