ePortfolio key messages

The ePortfolio is based on several foundations:

• Maintaining competence in healthcare practice requires life-long self-directed PD
• Critical reflection is required for the development of appropriate and ongoing PD
• You are expected to provide evidence of their ongoing competence through self-generated documentation and digital documents uploaded to the ePortfolio
• ePortfolio supervision is required to support critical reflection and the ongoing development of competence
• The ePortfolio is based on a high trust model
• Active and meaningful engagement with the ePortfolio is necessary to provide adequate information to monitor competence
• The ePortfolio allows the OTBNZ to perform audits to monitor your ongoing competence

The two-year cycle

The ePortfolio uses a two-year cycle, beginning April 1st of each new cycle. Annual practising certificate renewal will fall either in the middle or end of an ePortfolio cycle. 

New cycle FAQs

What happens if I recently started practising as an kaiwhakaora ngangahau in the transition period?

If you have just graduated or recently become registered to practice in Aotearoa New Zealand near the end of the current ePortfolio cycle, you can start your first ePortfolio in the new cycle.

What are my responsibilities as an ePortfolio supervisor during the transition period?

• Acceptance of ePortfolio supervisor nominations for the new ePortfolio cycle
• Support and guidance to those you supervise to meet the ePortfolio expectations
• Discuss goals for each competency area with the kaiwhakaora ngangahau to ensure they are appropriate, realistic and achievable

• Guidance and support to plan suitable developmental activities to achieve each goal
• Completion of the two supervisor statements to acknowledge self-assessments have been discussed and engagement with the ePortfolio PD activities is occurring. These need to be made by the end of the first six months of practice in the cycle. See the supervision user guide for instructions on how to make the statements.

The reflective practice cycle

There are five key parts to the ePortfolio reflective practice cycle which are intended to support PD and continued competence:

• Self-assessment of competence and identification of areas for PD
• Setting of goal/s to address and attain specific competence
• Planning of PD activities to achieve the goals
• Documenting outcomes of PD activities
• Critical reflections related to goals, PD activities and the impact on competence and practice after completion of these

Critical reflection

The critical reflection step is essential to complete the reflective practice cycle for each area of competence in the ePortfolio. The complexity and skills required for critical reflection can often be unacknowledged by practitioners (Kinsella, 2001). The ePortfolio provides an opportunity for you to develop this skill. An essential component to critical reflection is the requirement of you to understand yourself and your role in this process. This is necessary before changes in practice can occur in ways that are responsive and appropriate to healthcare provision (Johns, 2017).

Critical reflection for all areas of competence needs to also incorporate concepts of responsiveness to Te Tiriti and cultural safety. This includes questioning your  own biases, attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices which may contributing to inequity and a lower quality of healthcare for people (Curtis et al., 2019). For Aotearoa New Zealand developing a critical reflexivity of practise is particularly important so you can understand how these factors may be contributing to systemic and institutional barriers for tangata whenua to access equitable standards of healthcare.

Self-assessment of competence

There should be a self-assessment for each of the five competency areas completed within the first three months of practice within the ePortfolio cycle. This is where you ‘take stock’ of where you are with each Competency area.

The self-assessment of competence needs to consider the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for you to be safe and competent in your practice setting. Although it is called a ‘self’ assessment, there is an expectation that you are seeking and responding to feedback from a variety of other sources about your competence. This feedback may be received through formal performance appraisal processes, peer review, supervision, multi-disciplinary teams or directly from the people who you work with. OTBNZ considers receiving this feedback as an important element in the self-assessment of competence.

The self-assessment needs to use the Competencies for Registration and Continuing Practice (2022) as the guiding framework. The specific performance indicators under each area of competence need to be critically reviewed and considered in the context of your practice.

The self-assessment can include a description of contextual factors such as practice issues, upcoming changes in your role or responsibilities, or service user expectations. Self-assessments should be written to provide a logical progression to the goal set for each area of competence.

Setting goals

There needs to be at least one goal for each competency area for every 2-year cycle. The goal should address the area of competence and/or the performance indicators identified in the self-assessment as the focus for professional development. Goals should be specific, realistic, and clearly linked to achieving the professional development described in the self-assessment. Goals can be long term and cover the whole 2-year cycle or can be achieved in shorter time frames.

A goal for each competency area should be set at the beginning of each 2 year cycle within three months of commencing practice within an ePortfolio cycle. Goals should be discussed and reviewed with your ePortfolio supervisor. Goals that are in progress need to have PD activities documented. There needs to be at least one goal in progress at all times during the two year cycle until all five competency areas have been completed. Goals can be worked on concurrently, one after the other, or in any other way that best suits your individual situation.

ePortfolio goals

• Should be based on the self-assessment of competence and discussed with your ePortfolio supervisor
• At least one goal needs to be completed for each of the five core competency areas over the two year cycle
• May be the same as workplace goals and tasks from performance appraisals, KPI’s or career progression objectives.
• Should reflect your level of experience and practice responsibilities.
• Should demonstrate progression of competence between ePortfolio cycles in ways that are appropriate to your own level of experience, skills, and knowledge

Goals can be revised and updated at any time. This may be necessary when you change employment or work roles within an ePortfolio cycle. Reasons for the revision or change should be documented in the outcomes section under the relevant goal.

Where a goal is completed or discontinued near the beginning of the ePortfolio cycle there is room for a new self-assessment to be completed and a new reflective practice cycle begun.

Professional developmental activities

Professional developmental activities are the plan of action to achieve your goals. There is the ability to document several activities if this is required to complete the plan. To keep the activities realistic, the level of complexity and number of activities should be carefully considered over the whole ePortfolio.

One to three meaningful and targeted PD activities for each goal are adequate.

PD activities need to:

• Clearly and logically connect to achieving the associated goal
• Describe a specific action or task
• Be measurable and finite

Activities which can be carried out as part of daily practice or workplace PD are ideal to use to reduce additional work for you. Varying the type of PD activities used over the five competence areas will provide a range of learning opportunities.

Some examples of appropriate commonly engaged in PD activities are:

• Attending a course, workshop or seminar related to the area of competence
• Reviewing and presenting a specific article to peers
• Engaging in professional supervision
• Enrolling/completing post graduate education
• Completing online training courses related to area of competence
• Observing a mentor practising
• Initiating a peer review of practice
• Providing mentoring or preceptorship to another kaiwhakaora ngangahau
• Delivering an in service
• Writing an article or academic paper
• Offering to supervise a student or colleague
• Facilitating or attending professional networking opportunities
• Leading or participating in a workplace or professional project
• Attending or presenting at conferences
• Participating and contributing to OTNZ-WNA or another professional organisation
• Writing submissions to inform policy development
• Reviewing or writing organisational processes, procedures and standards of practice
• Spending time with co-workers, service users or other organisations to understand different ways of working
• Self-directed research and study
• Conducting or participating in research projects
• Engaging in career progression activities
• Piloting new assessments or interventions
• Implementing new guidelines or standards
• Signing up for journal alerts or other notifications of educational activities

You should not delete completed or discarded goals and PD activities.  If activities have not been completed this should be documented in the outcomes section of the ePortfolio with an explanation of why this has happened. All experiences contribute to PD and can be reflected on in some way to progress, maintain or plan for continuing competence. 

Digital artefacts

Where possible, documentation or a digital form of evidence (‘digital artefacts’) should be uploaded beside the relevant PD activity. Digital artefacts can provide additional evidence of competence and achievement of PD goals.

 Examples of appropriate digital artefacts are:

• Enrolment acceptance letters
• Certificates of attendance
• Qualifications
• In-service presentations
• Scanned workplace brochures, policies or projects
• Copies of authored articles/publications
• Supervision logs/agreements
• Letters of acknowledgement/feedback
• Performance review, performance management or return to work plans
• Reflective journaling
• Copies of emails (anonymised if other people’s information is involved)
• Screenshots of feedback or web based information
• Photos
• Audio or video clips of presentations, webinars or other similar activity

Outcomes/Change in practice

The outcomes/change in practice section in the ePortfolio is where you document how your professional development activities have led to a change in your practice and improved outcomes for the people you work with. Reference to the Ministry of Health’s definition of equity and health outcomes may be useful:

In Aotearoa New Zealand, people have differences in health that are not only avoidable but unfair and unjust. Equity recognises different people with different levels of advantage require different approaches and resources to get equitable health outcomes.

A specific example of what your new practices are needs to be provided to substantiate your outcomes. Some exemplars of what a specific example should look like are provided below:

Documenting your achievements as they occur is a way to keep an up to date record of ongoing professional development over the two-year cycle.  If a goal or developmental activity has not been completed an explanation of this can be recorded.

Reflective practice cycle key messages

• The ePortfolio is evidence of your ongoing engagement in PD to maintain and progress their competence.
• It is not necessary to record all PD undertaken in the ePortfolio
• There should be at least one goal completed for each of the five competency areas over the two-year cycle.
• ePortfolio goals should be connected explicitly to the self-assessment of competence and the Competencies for Registrations and Continuing practice. 
• Any completed or discarded goals and developmental activities should not be deleted as these contribute to the PD history recorded in the ePortfolio.
• Uploading digital artefacts is an important part of the ePortfolio as these provide additional evidence of competence
• Outcomes of the PD and a change of practice example is required for each goal
• Critical reflection is an essential part of the reflective practice cycle
• Obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi need to be considered as part of the critical reflections for all areas of competence