Portfolios
If
you are currently in training, your employing trust should require
you to complete a portfolio of evidence. This portfolio is meant to
document your postgraduate medical education. Generally, it records
information about clinical rotations, assessments, meetings,
courses, personal development plans, and your own reflections. How
portfolios are used and what they consist of varies around the
country and many deaneries have introduced electronic learning
portfolios called e-portfolios.
A portfolio can be very useful for helping you
to make good decisions regarding specialty training and should help
you to collect examples of the skills you have developed. The
reflective nature of the portfolio should also allow you to
‘unpick’ situations after they happen, much like a personal mini
M&M, addressing questions such as what really happened? What
contribution did you make to the situation? What was the
result and what did you learn from the experience?
Preparing your portfolio
If you have not completed a portfolio before,
you will need to begin to collate one. First, check with your
deanery to see what format is currently being used and the types of
things to include. If you cannot acquire a template, create one by
looking at other trainees’ portfolios and ask senior clinicians for
advice.
If you are applying from outside the UK and do
not have access to these options, create a portfolio by
including:
- your current CV
- certificates of training
- audit reports
- annual assessments of competence
- testimonials from nurses, senior clinicians and
supervisors
- reflections on your skills related to the desired
specialty.
Further information
The
Foundation Learning Portfolio was designed to help
foundation doctors plan and manage their foundation programme
experience. The portfolio is based on the foundation programme
curriculum but the principles can be applied to creating and
maintaining portfolios at any stage of your career.
Within the portfolio are tools that will help
you identify educational needs, set goals and plan how to achieve
them. The portfolio also contains advice on how to demonstrate
competences you have achieved.
We have also written a guide to E-portfolios which includes some advice
on how to write in your portfolio.
A very useful resource
The South West Peninsula Deanery/AGCAS DVD is a very useful
resource if you are attending an assessment centre. There is a
section on the DVD about the
portfolio interview.