Throughout your medical career you have a portfolio of some kind to develop. This helps show your own professional development and commitment to safe practice and patient care.
In GP training we work through the FourteenFish portfolio curriculum. Successful completion of this will culminate in successful ARCP at the end of each year, and – alongside exams – Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) at the end of your GP training.
Beyond is an overview of the portfolio and useful hints and tips on how to master it.
Fourteen Fish
The Portfolio
The ePortfolio is an important part of completing General Practice Specialist Training. As well as completing the Workplace Based Assessments (WPBAs) every 6 months, it is important to stay on top of your reflective entries.
A good range of entries need to be completed, reflecting each of the competence areas and each curriculum statement. It is always worth considering the curriculum when completing your entries, so that you ensure a good spread (aiming for at least 2 entries under each curriculum heading at the end of each year).
How to complete an ePortfolio entry
We all know that the ePortfolio can seem like an arduous task sometimes, but there is a point to it, the trick is finding a way for it to work for you. Whether you use it as an aide memoire, a note book, a diary, or merely a place to let off steam and have a good rant, it’s important to find an avenue that you can do business with, as the ePortfolio will be part of your life for the entire training scheme.
Reflection is the key to completing a good entry, and this is the part that worries people. Start by writing about things that have gone particularly well, or badly, or cases that have proven a challenge – clinically or from a communication skills point of view. These are often the best cases to start with. Comparing cases with other cases you have seen is also a good way to reflect, whether these be cases you have dealt with, others have, or you have read about.
When looking through entries, assessors of the ePortfolio are looking for the word “I” in the “what did you learn” section. This can be a quick way of deeming how reflective you have been in an entry, and this is a good tip for when you are filling out this section.
The other key point to make sure you are reflective enough is looking at the proportion of writing in your entry. There should be minimal information in the first two boxes “what happened” and “what, if anything, happened subsequently”, and more detailed, longer entries in “what did you learn” and “what will you do differently in future”.
Discover how this can work for you!
Requirements each year:
| ST1 | ST2 | ST3 | |
| Mini-CEX/COT | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Audio-COT | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| CBD/CAT | 4 CBDs | 4 CBDs | 5 CATs |
| MSF | 1 (with 10+ responses) | 1 (with 10+ responses) | 2 (1 MSF, 1 leadership MSF) |
| CSR | 1 per post | 1 per post | 1 (if relevant) |
| PSQ | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Learning Logs | 36 (as an average minimum) | as before | as before |
| Placement meeting | 1 per post | 1 per post | 1 per post |
| CEPs | Ongoing | Ongoing | 5 intimate plus range of others |
| ESR | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Mid Year Review | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| QIP | 1 in GP block | as before | as before |
| Significant Event | If relevant | If relevant | If relevant |
| Learning Event Analysis | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Prescribing Review | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Leadership Activity | 0 | 0 | 1 |