1. Based on ‘e portfolio pearls’
The e portfolio
Based on ‘e portfolio pearls’

2. What’s it for? 2 main purposes:
Enable ARCP panel to decide whether you should continue to progress through training, and whether you should get your CCT at the end
An educational tool for your continuing professional development

3. It’s the glue that holds learning and assessment together

4. What the EP can do for you
Give you a structured approach to each job (set objectives and tick them off)
Help you identify areas for development
Be a storage tool (memory stick)
Be a jotter, more reliable than scraps of paper
Get you into reflective mode
Get you through nMRCGP
Make reviews with supervisors more meaningful

5. Pearl no 1 - Don’t get hung up on where to put what
Clinical encounters
Professional conversations
Tutorials
Lectures and seminars
Readings
Courses and certificates
Out of hours sessions (unscheduled care)
Can link all to curriculum and to competencies

6. 2 Write what’s helpful for you - things you want to remember
Clinical conundrums
Pearls of wisdom from others
Difficult encounters with patients, colleagues or staff
Things which went unexpectedly well (you can identify the skills you used)

7. 3 Record at both general and specific levels
General - ‘tutorial on headaches, red flag symptoms, migraine management, abdominal migraine in children’ - useful to demonstrate curriculum coverage
Specific - ‘red flags (early morning headache, worse with bending, occipital, visual changes); abdo migraine in children - remember low dose pizotifen’ -uesful for your learning

8. 4 Record your feelings
Things which made you feel anxious, angry, frustrated - or good
And your reflections on why it happened
And what you have learned from it
But be careful how you write it

9. 5 Write in your natural style
Will make it easier and more comfortable for you
Will help your educational supervisor and others get a sense of you - makes it easier for them to help you

10. 6 Visit the EP regularly
Log in every day if you can (easy in GP posts)
Make entries straight away
Review whole picture regularly (e g number of assessments, curriculum and competency coverage)
Doing it all at the last minute is obvious to ARCP panel and gives a bad impression

11. 7 Quality, not quantity
Educational supervisors and assessors don’t just count the number of entries
They are looking for evidence of reflection and learning
And you want it to be useful to you too

12. 8 Use your PDP
Simpler than trawling through log entries to see what needs to be done
Makes you actually do the tasks you set out to do - so maximises learning
A snag - supervisor has to have read shared log entry before you can submit it to PDP

13. 9 Do more than minimum number of assessments
Minimum number set for 6m post must be completed before the ES meeting before the ARCP meeting in month 5
Assessments are developmental, they help you learn
(This is easier in GP posts!)

14. 10 Don’t miss ES sessions 2 by end of 4th month of every 6m post
Educational supervisor is with you throughout your training, source of help and support as well as e portfolio work

15. ARCP panels look for Good curriculum coverage
Sufficient evidence of assessments (at least minimum number)
Active PDP
Good quality information
OOH record (number of sessions and record of learning from them)
Evidence of progression (impossible if all entries done at last minute)

16. More help from
Guide on RCGP website to the technical aspects of filling it in
E portfolio pearls document - on Bradford VTS and Deanery websites
Trainers, educational supervisors, programme directors, more experienced trainees