You can download a PDF of the following information here Portfolio Hints and Tips

What is it and why keep one?

A portfolio is a living document, providing evidence to an employer of your accomplishments, skills, abilities and extra curricula activities.  It documents the quality and scope of your experience and tracks your professional development and career planning over time.  It is an organised collection of documentation that presents both your personal and professional achievements in a concrete way.

Throughout your professional career you will need to develop and present a portfolio of evidence to support the appraisal process.  You will also need a portfolio for recruitment purposes.  You will find the Peninsula Deanery, within its assessment centre process, uses portfolios, alongside other tools, to assess your competencies and trainability for specialty training.

Your portfolio should be treated as a confidential document, representing your clinical practice and professional development and should be kept safe.

Presentation

What should your portfolio say about YOU?

• A determined and enthusiastic doctor, willing to continually learn and improve
• A doctor who will go the extra mile to expand their knowledge and skills
• Someone who takes their career planning and personal/professional development seriously
• Can reflect and learn from achievements and mistakes
• Has achieved the key skills to be trained in the specialty of their choice
• It should show a pride in achievements gained inside and outside of medicine
• An individual who is skilled in organisation, planning and logical thinking. Think carefully about the structure and content of your portfolio.  Your assessors will see your portfolio before they meet you, therefore, don't present a disorganised, sloppy and slap dash portfolio.  Remember - FIRST IMPRESSIONS DO COUNT!

Designing Your Portfolio

Start with the basics and help make your assessors lives easy:

• Named ring binder or suitable equivalent i.e. something that clearly displays and protects your evidence. Do not cram it full of material; make it easy to turn pages and access content.  Be selective with what you include, ensure that it is of a good quality and relevant.
• Make navigation simple; include a contents page at the front and ensure that you have clearly divided the various sections of your portfolio by using dividers that are wider than your A4 material.  Be logical in your layout; consider the impression you will be giving about the way you potentially think and work.
• CV at the front of the portfolio.  You may wish to include both a summarised CV, which will provide details of your career to date in an easy to read shortened format, along with your full CV.  Remember, your assessors only have a very limited period of time to look at your portfolio and interview you.  By providing a summarised CV you will be able to quickly tell them about your education, key qualifications, audits, prizes, research and relevant work experiences.  For hints and tips for compiling CVs: Click Here

Content

There are a number of ways to structure your portfolio and two of the commonest are:

• An expanded CV
• Based on GMC's Good Medical Practice Guide for Doctors

You do not have to follow these structures but be sure that you can meet the criteria laid down in the guide - visit http://www.gmc-uk.org/

An expanded CV layout might include the following sections.  If you use this format you should also use the mapping document (below) so that you can identify which parts of your portfolio contain evidence to support good medical practice (taken from the GMC domains for Good Medical Practice.)

• Personal details
• Contents page
• Mapping Document (to GMC Domains of Good Medical Practice)
• CV
• Certificates (Degrees, CRB, Completion of Foundation etc)
• Self appraisal & personal development plan
• Posts held
• Appraisal meetings
• Review forms
• Assessments of competence (If you have large numbers of work based assessment forms then you can include them but it would be best to put them all together with a list at the front summarising the assessments & types of cases done)
• Reflective practice
• Teaching (with feedback)
• Presentations (with feedback)
• Audit
• Research & Publications
• IT Skills
• Careers
• Extra-curricula activities

The mapping document might look like this and allow you to demonstrate evidence linking your achievements to the GMC domains of good practice:

An alternative is to organise your portfolio based on the GMC domains of good practice.  This would include the following sections:

GOOD MEDICAL PRACTICE

Good Medical Care - Examples of documentation which are appropriate

• Log book (try to log all procedures), Trainers reports, RITA forms
• Deanery documentation (foundation sign off form)
• Previous Personal Development Plan(s)
• Audit, reflections, changes in practice documented
• Complaints/outcomes/reflections
• Critical incidents, reflections
• Reflections on own practice
• Reflections on your training and progress

Maintaining Good Medical Practice

The purpose of this section is to record continuing educational activities undertaken since the last appraisal. Any difficulties in attending these activities should be recorded, with reasons and the action taken to address these difficulties. You should keep up to date and ensure that you acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to work appropriately as a doctor in training. You should keep yourself informed about your working environment by keeping up to date about key directions and changes in the NHS and in medical practice. You should interest yourself in research findings and you may wish to engage in undertaking and participating in research activities.

Examples of documentation you might include:

• Examples of attendance at local and regional teaching sessions (keep a record of attendance at lunchtime teaching, generic skills and study days)
• Certificates of attendance at courses such as ILS, ALERT, ALS
• Examination results to demonstrate your professional development
• Record of clinical governance activities, including audit activities and attendance at your clinical team's meetings
• Record of research activities and outcomes (e.g. publications, presentations)
• Record of Study Leave/Continuing Professional Development (CPD)-usually after Foundation training

Working relationships with colleagues

The purpose of this section is to reflect on your relationship with your colleagues.

Examples of documentation, which may be appropriate, are:

• For each post/placement e.g. rotating round ward etc... a description of the setting within which you work and the team structure
• Four line statement of clinical setting with personal account of how you feel you are relating to, and are part of the team
• Statement from consultant/tutor trainer (for Foundation years this will be the end of placement report from your clinical supervisor)
• Peer review/360° (for Foundation years this is the mini-PAT)

Relations with patients

The purpose of this section is to reflect on your relationships with your patients

Examples of documentation, which may be appropriate, are:

• Personal statement
• Statements from Trainers/Tutors/Consultants/Work Colleagues
• Patient questionnaires/reviews
• Thank you letters
• Complaints with outcomes

Teaching and Training

The purpose of this section is to reflect on your teaching and training activities since your last appraisal and should be recorded.

Examples of documentation, which may be appropriate, are:

• Record of Teaching Activity
• Teaching activities to other doctors/students/Professions allied to Medicine
• Include feedback where appropriate or available
• Include teaching - Courses - Small groups 1-to-1
• Training in Teaching (e.g. Training the Trainers) should be included in (2)

Research

• Evidence of formal research commitments.
• Record of any research ongoing or completed in the previous year.
• Record of funding arrangements for research.
• Record of noteworthy achievements.
• Confirmation that appropriate ethical approval has been secured for all research undertaken.
• Publications

It is important that you also include reflective pieces of work that show your ability to learn from experiences, both good and bad, and that you are proactive in improving your knowledge, skills and professional development.

The expanded CV style may prove easier to navigate especially during the assessment process, whilst the GMC style portfolio reflects that currently required of consultants.

When compiling your portfolio you should also:

• Get ideas from your educational supervisor.
• Ensure you have the relevant portfolio documentation required by each Deanery you apply to for specialty training. For details of the Peninsula Deanery's requirements visit the specialty training pages: Here
• Check with the relevant Royal College for any additional evidence that will help support your application to a particular specialty.

Articulating Your Portfolio at Assessment Centres

Prior to attending assessment centres, ensure that you take time to prepare for each station.  Consider the following when preparing for the portfolio station:

• What does this portfolio say about me?
• What key skills and experiences does it highlight?
• What was the purposing of developing it?
• How has it helped me improve my professional performance, skills, knowledge and interest?

You must know your portfolio inside out and back to front as you don't know what questions you will be asked.  Be forthcoming when you're being interviewed, convince your interviewers that you've done everything you can to prepare yourself for training in their specialty and that you are committed and enthusiastic.

Ensure that you have re-read the relevant person specifications and job descriptions so that you are fully aware of the types of things you may be assessed against.

Remember, your portfolio is a living document; it should help chart your development and provide evidence of the level of your competencies and enthusiasm for the specialty you are applying to.

Your interviewers want to be convinced that you are trainable and have the potential to perform well in their specialty.

DO NOT take your portfolio lightly!

Thanks to Drs Cate Powell, Melanie Huddart and Alison Carr.