ePortfolio Introduction
The 5 steps in the ePortfolio reflective cycle are:
Self assessment
Set goals
Plan professional development (PD) activities
Record outcomes/changes
Critical reflection
Step 1 – Self assessment
The first step is to consider the five key competencies and the performance indicators that sit under them. Reflect on where there may be areas for improvement and professional development, to meet the following outcomes:
1. Applying whakaora ngangahau occupational therapy knowledge, skills and values
You apply your knowledge, skills and values as a kaiwhakaora ngangahau occupational therapist by engaging with and supporting people and whānau to have a life they value, through enabling occupation and inclusion in communities.
2. Responsiveness to te Tiriti o Waitangi
As tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti, you recognise your role and responsibilities under te Tiriti o Waitangi and apply your knowledge to work for equitable outcomes for Ma-ori wellbeing. Te Ao Ma-ori, tikanga, wairua, wha-nau hauora and taonga such as te reo Ma-ori are respected and supported.
3. Developing and sustaining partnerships
You promote and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation for peoples health and wellbeing services.
4. Practising in a safe, legal, ethical, sustainable and culturally competent way
You act with integrity. You meet safety, legal, ethical, sustainability and cultural requirements and expectations in your professional practice.
5. Practising responsively and upholding the occupational therapy profession
You engage with your profession. You ensure your practice is professional, current, responsive and evidence-informed. You take responsibility for your own professional development.
See the Competencies Handbook for full descriptions of the competencies.
The self-assessment of competence needs to consider knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the therapist to be safe and meet the competencies in their practice setting.
Although it is called a ‘self’ assessment, there is an expectation that therapists are seeking and responding to feedback from a variety of other sources about their competence.
This feedback may be received through formal performance appraisal processes, peer review, supervision, multi-disciplinary teams or directly from the people who the therapists works with. The Board considers receiving this feedback as an important element in self-assessment of competence.
The self-assessment should include a brief introductory description of contextual factors to set the scene for each cycle. These may include past experiences, practice setting, team environment, upcoming changes in work role or responsibilities, and service user expectations.
Step 2 – Set goals
There needs to be at least one goal for each competency area in every two-year cycle and they must be set within three months of commencing the cycle. These goals should address the areas identified in the self-assessment.
ePortfolio goals should:
• be discussed and reviewed with your ePortfolio supervisor
• reflect your level of experience and practice responsibilities
• be specific and realistic
• have PD activities documented.
Goals can be long-term and cover the whole cycle or can be achieved in shorter time frames.
There always needs to be at least one goal in progress during the 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 individual situations. Once a goal has been achieved a new goal does not need to be made until the next cycle.
New goals or more than one goal can be set to achieve the PD identified in the competence self-assessment. This is at the therapist’s discretion.
If a new goal is set that does not relate to the existing self-assessment of competence, a new self- assessment needs to be written.
Goals can be revised and updated at any time. This may be necessary when therapists change employment or work roles within an ePortfolio cycle. Reasons for the revision or change should be documented in the outcomes and critical reflection sections under the relevant goal.
Step 3 – Plan professional development (PD) activities
PD activities are the plan of action to achieve your goals. You may document several activities if this is required to complete the plan.
To keep the activities realistic to achieve, the level of complexity and number of activities should be carefully considered over the whole ePortfolio. One to three meaningful and targeted 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 the therapist.
Varying the type of activities used over the five competence areas will provide a range of learning opportunities.
Some examples of appropriate PD activities are:
• Initiating a peer review of practice
• Offering to supervise a student or colleague
• Spending time with co-workers, service users or other organisations to understand different ways of working
• Piloting new assessments or interventions
• Signing up for journal alerts or other notifications of educational activities
See the Reference Guide for more examples.
Therapists 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.
Step 4 – Record outcomes / changes in practice
The outcomes/change in practice section in the ePortfolio is where you document how your PD 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 were needs to be provided to substantiate your outcomes. For instance:
“I now try and carry out part of my assessments in the persons own environment. This has meant allowing an extra visit in my diary for each referral and re-prioritising my time management each week. This has resulted in me being able to follow up and discuss solutions in much more depth on the phone and via telehealth with the person and whānau before making the final recommendations.”
“I now will visit with our Māori health worker for most visits to Māori whānau. We often continue to visit together and plan with the whānau what needs to happen for the next week or two. This has led to the needs assessor commenting on not needing to put in as much home help support for several people because of everyone knowing what to do and who was doing it.”
“I have created a flow chart for me and my staff to follow when there are complex ethical issues we have to resolve. We now use this when making funding and service provision decisions. It has helped us clarify what our ethical responsibilities were to make sure the person continued to receive the rehab they needed, and we have been able to argue for a continuation of services.”
See the Reference Guide for more examples.
If a goal or PD activity has not been completed an explanation of this can be recorded here.
Documenting your achievements as they occur is a way to keep an up to date record of ongoing PD over the two-year cycle.
Digital artefacts
Where possible, documentation or a digital form of evidence - digital artefacts - should be uploaded beside the relevant PD activity.
Digital artefacts provide additional substantiation of competence and achievement of your goals.
These should be anonymized and not contain any identifiable information. Clinical notes, assessments or minutes of meetings are not appropriate to upload due to the confidential nature of this information.
Some examples of appropriate digital artefacts are:
• Enrolment acceptance letters
• Certificates of attendance
• Screenshots or short video or audio clips
• Reflective journaling
• Performance review, performance management or return to work plans
See the R eference Guide for more examples.
Step 5 – Critical reflection
The critical reflection step is essential to complete the reflective practice cycle for each area of competence.
It is important that the PD activities are not just a series of boxes to check off; outcomes of these activities need to must be reflected on through a critical lens to develop insight and continue to develop as a practitioner.
An essential component to critical reflection is the requirement of the therapist involved to understand themselves and their role in practice outcomes.
For Aotearoa New Zealand, developing a critical reflexivity of practice is particularly important so therapists can proactively act as a Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner to break down systemic and institutional barriers and provide equitable standards of healthcare for Tangata Whenua.
Health providers need to question their own biases, attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes and prejudices as part of their critical reflection process.
Critical reflections for each competency should inform the self-assessments of competence in the next ePortfolio cycle to demonstrate a progression in professional development.
Summary
It is this cycle of five steps, focusing on the five competencies, that helps keep our profession safe and supports our excellent reputation.
Your engagement with the ePortfolio system as the central documentation of your professional development allows us to work in a high-trust model and retain the privilege of being a self-regulated profession.
And, as always, we maintain the goal of being the best therapists we can be.
Where to from here?
The Competencies Handbook is a deep dive into the five competencies and is a vital document for self-reflection and setting goals.
The Reference Guide supports this handbook with in-depth information to guide you as you start the ePortfolio process. It comprehensively covers questions such as:
• What are the requirements for an ePortfolio supervisor?
• What happens if the annual practicing certificate renewal falls in the middle of the ePortfolio cycle?
• How does the audit process work?
It provides answers to these and many other queries, and it offers further clarification about topics in this handbook.
The ePortfolio User Guide in pdf and video format provide a guide to navigating the ePortfolio, complete with screenshots. It is your user manual for navigating the ePortfolio.
Summary
Planning for each ePortfolio cycle should be useful and meaningful to you. It will help you progress your career, as well as ensuring you have the competence to create change and transform other people’s lives.