Faculty Development

The requirements of NHS appraisal and, in future, revalidation, reflect a more general movement in most professions towards the use of portfolios which pull together ‘evidence’ and information from a range of sources to demonstrate continuing professional development. Evidence collected is commonly linked together by a reflective log, diary, reflective commentary or account of development over a specified time frame (annually, three years, five years, etc.) enabling the reader to ‘make sense’ of the portfolio in terms of the individual’s professional development and their specific context. Portfolios have now been introduced for Foundation and specialty training and will be one of the main ways through which individual practitioners at all levels will justify their continued inclusion on the general practice and specialist registers.

A portfolio or folder might include a development plan, appraisal records (including academic appraisals, 360º appraisals, multi-source feedback forms from patients, colleagues and others), research papers or other publications, conference papers, critical or significant incident analysis, attendance certificates from training events, clinical meetings, conferences,  assessment results from training courses and other evidence requirements. There are formal links to the appraisal process and a requirement for a personal development plan, and the Royal Colleges are engaged in setting out specific requirements for different clinical specialties, including elaboration of what revalidation means for specialties, as well as formats for revalidation folders, some of which are electronic.

Increasingly, medical students are also required to maintain a learning portfolio; many of these are electronic and designed to a structured format. These will be clearly linked to enabling the student to achieve the stated learning outcomes of the programme, and in some medical schools they form part of the assessment process.