Meet Dr. Jessica Burness Associate Program Director

Hello!  My name is Jessica Burness, but most folks in the program just call me Jess.   I chair our curriculum committee and am very proud of the work we have done over the years to build a longitudinal R2 and R3 curriculum that centers the resident experience in the Patient Centered Medical Home.  Every proposal for curriculum development and improvement in our residency is either resident driven by residents or developed with extensive input from the four to six residents on the curriculum committee.  We meet monthly and invite guests to share ideas and help us brainstorm solutions to concerns raised by residents,  to explore innovative ideas for education and clinical experience, and to work to  meet the goals we set for ourselves each year.  We routinely review resident evaluations of rotations and other elements of the curriculum, such as QI,  plan noon reports and case-based conference series and work to develop elective experiences.

 Here are a few of our successful projects over the past year:

Development of a dual inpatient/outpatient addiction medicine elective with Terena Gimmillaro DO, one of our graduates and a local addiction medicine specialist, to supplement our core rotational experiences with IT MATTERS and with the addiction medicine consult service at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Development of an Advocacy Elective rotation with faculty member Evan Saulino, who also leads the national organization Doctors for America.  Development of an all day advocacy workshop during the intern community medicine week, in collaboration with OHSU Pediatrics.

In response to intern feedback that our six week inpatient pediatrics rotation, although it provided excellent clinical experience and teaching, was extremely intensive and exhausting, we worked with our pediatrician partners at Randall Children’s Hospital to split the rotation into two three week blocks and provide a consistent cushion at the start and end of the rotation.  We also worked to try to get most interns one summery block and one wintery block of inpatient pediatrics.