ePortfolio

Why do I need an e-portfolio?

The simple answer is to be awarded a CCT and become a GP.

Your E-portfolio is the record of the work you do over the 3 years on the scheme, it takes effort to get it right but is rewarding at the end of your training. Don’t forget you need 2-3 entries put in to it every week. Engagement with the portfolio is mandatory. It will be regularly reviewed by your Clinical supervisor and Educational Supervisor. It is your responsibility to keep keep it up to date

Useful pages, websites and downloads:

Top tips from Scarborough
E-pf 10 tips Microsoft Word document [39.5 KB]

E-portfolio pearls from the Yorkshire Deanery

The trainee e-portfolio (RCGP)

Reflective learning

The First Steps

  • Check your posts before you get to them, ensure your e-portfolio has you going where you think you are going. Your clinical supervisors may change nearer the changeover, but if the post does – ask why.
  • It is your responsibility to ensure the dates are correct in your e-portfolio if they are wrong / or you think they may be wrong ask the administrator to check them for you. This could be progression dates after maternity leave or posts in the wrong practice.
  • Check your educational supervisor is named, and is the same in every post.
  • Read the declarations and agreements, these require an electronic signature from you.
  • Get your educational supervisor to countersign your educational agreement

Planning – Look at each 6 month post

  • Keep your personal details updated, if you alter your email address don’t forget to alter it on your personal details page.
  • Timeline: get a good idea of a good timeline, then plan your own activities and mandatory assessments and stick to it! ~ it makes it easier in the long run.
  • From day one, use the Personal Development Plan section in your E-portfolio to record your plans. PDP is your responsibility and an area looked at by the ARCP panel. As you are in training you will have learning needs – so record them. Use one entry to relate to one learning need. This is where you record your learning needs which can be brought from systems such as PUNS and DENs, supervision meetings, or from personal reflections.

 Make your PDP ‘smart’

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Realistic
  • Time-bound

Don’t forget your PDP: don’t put everything in at the start of a post and then forget about this area. Don’t make your entries too vague, or you wont know if you have completed them.

Learning Log

Share your learning log entries with your educational supervisior as you write them, this will allow your ES to keep up to date with them, and comment accordingly. Make sure you put enough entries in, this should be two to three entries a week. Doing these entries gives you the chance of covering the curriculum easily, if you do fewer entries you run an increased risk of demonstrating inadequate curriculum coverage and recieving an outcome 5 at panel. Evidence should be collected steadily throughout the year, if you compress all your evidence into a short period of time, again there is a possibility of outcome 5 at panel.

Capabilities assessed by WPBA

Capability means having the abilities, knowledge and skills necessary for independent professional practise. The WPBA are measured against a framework of 13 capabilities:

  1. Fitness to practise – the doctor’s awareness of when his/her own performance, conduct or health, or that of others, might put patients at risk, and taking action to protect patients
  2. Maintaining an ethical approach – practising ethically, with integrity and a respect for diversity 
  3. Communication and consultation skills – communication with patients, and the use of recognised consultation techniques
  4. Data gathering and interpretation – for clinical judgement, choice of physical examination and investigations and their interpretation
  5. Clinical examination and procedural skills – competent physical examination of the patient with accurate interpretation of physical signs and the safe practice of procedural skills
  6. Making a diagnosis / decisions – a conscious, structured approach to decision making
  7. Clinical management – recognition and management of common medical conditions in primary care
  8. Managing medical complexity – aspects of care beyond managing straightforward problems, including management of co-morbidity, uncertainty, risk and focusing on health rather than just illness
  9. Working with colleagues and in teams – working effectively with other professionals to ensure good patient care, including sharing information with colleagues
  10. Maintaining performance, learning and teaching – maintaining performance and effective CPD for oneself and others
  11. Organisation, management and leadership – this is about understanding how primary care is organised within the NHS, how teams are managed and the development of clinical leadership skills 
  12. Practising holistically, promoting health and safeguarding – operating in physical, psychological, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions, taking into account feelings as well as thoughts
  13. Community orientation – management of the health and social care of the practice population and local community 

When writing log entries you should provide evidence that links to the capabilities. In the 14Fish portfolio you van click on word descriptors to show what skills are being expected under each capability. Your CS will review the entries and link the capability areas. At the end of your 6 month post you will need to rate yourself against the thirteen areas, evidence must be present in your E-portfolio to justify the ratings.  Your educational supervisor will use the evidence provided to fill in his form to show your progression.

Curriculum Coverage

The GP curriculum is vast. See RCGP for an overview and topic guides. For the WPBA the curriculum coverage is mapped to Clinical Experience Groups. You can link your log entries two maximum of 2 clinical experience groups. The clinical experience groups are below:

  1. Infants, children and young people (under the age of 19 years)
  2. Gender, reproductive and sexual health (including women’s, men’s, LGBTQ, gynae and breast)
  3. People with long-term conditions including cancer, multi-morbidity and disability
  4. Older adults including frailty and/or people at end of life
  5. Mental health (including addiction, alcohol and substance misuse)
  6. Urgent and unscheduled care
  7. People with health disadvantage and vulnerabilities (including veterans, mental capacity difficulties, safeguarding and those with communication difficulties/disability)
  8. Population Health and health promotion (including people with non-acute and/or non-chronic health problems)
  9. Clinical problems not linked to a specific clinical experience group

Naturally Occuring Evidence

These are a requirement of the Yorkshire and Humber Deanery that form part of the WPBA and should be recorded in the appropriate section of the learning log. This is evidence that is hard to demonstrate in assessments and NOE has been designed to help you clearly demonstrate them.

Follow this link for the Yorkshire and Humber guide on NOE

Mandatory assessments.

How many assessments?

The following table summarises the number of assessments required per training year. It should be emphasised that this is a minimum number and to achieve the Capabilities to the required standard, further assessments may be required.

Less than full time (LTFT) placements

For trainees who are less than full time the same number of assessments need to be completed per ‘training year’ (this will be longer than a calendar year). For example a trainee on a 50% less than full time rotation will take 2 years to complete a ‘training year’

WPBA numbers for each year of training 

Mini-CEX/COT
Any setting (face to face, telephone, or video)		ST1:
4		ST2:
4		ST3:
7
CBD / CATST1:
4CbD		ST2:
4CbD		ST3:
5 CAT
MSFST1:
1 (with 10 responses)		ST2:
1 (with 10 responses)		ST3:
2 (1 MSF, 1 Leadership MSF)
CSRST1:
1 per post*		ST2:
1 per post*		ST3:
1 per post*
PSQST1:
0		ST2:
0		ST3:
1
CEPSST1:
Ongoing		ST2:
Ongoing		ST3:
Across 3 years
5 intimate plus a range of others
Learning logsST1:
36 Case reviews		ST2:
36 Case reviews		ST3:
36 Case reviews
Placement planning meetingST1:
1 per post		ST2:
1 per post		ST3:
1 per post
QIPST1:
1 (in GP)		ST2:
1 (in GP) – if not done in ST1		ST3:
0
Quality improvement activityST1:
All trainees must demonstrate involvement in Quality Improvement at least once a year		ST2:
All trainees must demonstrate involvement in Quality Improvement at least once a year		ST3:
All trainees must demonstrate involvement in Quality Improvement at least once a year
Significant eventST1:
Only completed if reaches GMC threshold of potential or actual serious harm to patients.		ST2:
Only completed if reaches GMC threshold of potential or actual serious harm to patients.		ST3:
Only completed if reaches GMC threshold of potential or actual serious harm to patients.
Learning Event Analysis (LEA)ST1:
1		ST2:
1		ST3:
1
Prescribing reviewST1:
0		ST2:
0		ST3:
1
LeadershipST1:
0		ST2:
0		ST3:
1
Interim ESRST1:
1**		ST2:
1**		ST3:
1**
ESRST1:
1		ST2:
1		ST3:
1
CPR & AED Use (BLS)ST1:
Competence in CPR and AED use for all placements		ST2:
Competence in CPR and AED use for all placements		ST3:
Competence in CPR and AED use for all placements
Child and Adult SafeguardingST1:
Knowledge and Reflection***		ST2:
Knowledge and Reflection***		ST3:
Knowledge and Reflection***

*CSR to be completed in a primary care post if any of the following apply: The clinical supervisor in practice is a different person from the educational supervisor. The evidence in the ePortfolio does not give a full enough picture of the trainee and information in the CSR would provide this missing information, and either the trainee or supervisor feel it is appropriate.

** The interim ESR review can be completed at the mid point of each year only if the trainee is progressing satisfactorily. If there are any concerns about the trainees performance or they have had an unsatisfactory outcome in their previous ARCP then the full ESR will be required.

***If a trainee does not have a placement within a specific training year that includes children, then it is not mandatory (but still recommended) to record and document their learning on Child safeguarding. 

Trainees remaining on the “old” programme of WPBA prior to August 2020 should consult those minimum requirements.Page last updated: 6 May 2021 (added LTFT information)

Clinical Supervisors Report

CSRs need to be done for each post in the last two months, definitely before your educational supervisors meeting. This report is then mapped against the capability framework. The report will contain any concerns the supervisors have about your progress, and will show where your strengths and weaknesses are.

Educational Supervisors Report

Your educational supervisor will look at your E-portfolio before you meet. Make sure your E-portfolio is up to date before your meeting and that you have completed your self ratings. Use this checklist to ensure it is.

arcp_checklist_Nov_2020Download

Don’t forget:

  • Your WPBA and NOE should be up to date
  • Your Learning log and PDP should be up to date
  • Write up OOH or make an entry to show future dates are booked
  • Your clinical supervisors report should be up to date
  • Your self rating should be complete

When you meet your E-portfolio will be discussed as this is the evidence they can see to ensure you are progressing . If the educational supervisor has any concerns about your progress they will be discussed at this meeting and notes made in your E-portfolio.

Educators Notes

Educators notes are comments from your CS, ES or TPDs to make you aware of things that need doing or to make comments about your progress. Make sure you check these.

Less Than Full Time Training

Go HERE for more information. You may alter your original scheme due to time out or LTFFT, if you do you still need to complete all WPBA and have an ARCP every year.

ARCP

Go HERE for more information. ARCP panels take place when moving from ST1 to ST2, ST2 to ST3 and ST3 to CCT

Progress to Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT)

You need to have a CCT before you can work independently in general practice.  You need to apply for this yourself. Details are available on the RCGP website.

AKT ~ enter your results, if you have been unsuccessful, have you reflected on this and developed clear plans for the future, including an SEA log entry

CSA ~ enter your results, if you have been unsuccessful, have you reflected on this and developed clear plans for the future, including an SEA log entry

CPR/AED certificate ~ Log your entry under courses/certificates and don’t forget to attach the certificate, for proof of date. You must obtain this certificate whilst in your GP training posts, certificates are not transferable from Foundation years

Is your certificate going to be valid when you progress to CCT? The Trust operate a policy for all its staff to re-sit Adult and Paediatric BLS every year, is yours up to date?

SAFEGUARDING

All trainees require in date evidence of level 3 safeguarding for both adult and child safeguarding from the start or early part of their training in ST1 and thereafter throughout their training. In addition, all trainees require a minimum of one participatory piece of learning and reflection for both adult and child safeguarding in each training year which should be documented in the learning log. For examples of participatory evidence click here